Watchers Council: New Beginnings
by NightyNightUK
Summary: after sunnydale is destroyed the scoobies must adapt to changes in the council's policies while getting used to a new city. can the angel and buffy gangs learn to get along before the world ends. On Hiatus, Pending Rewrite
1. The Lone Wolf

Authors note: I have been reading a lot of fan fiction based on the further adventures of Buffy and the scoobies. Quite frankly none of them where very satisfying. Even CN Winters watchers series was not truly up to par with Joss Whedon's original series. So I have taken this opportunity to write a continuation of the Buffy series that I think better suits Joss's original story ideas. Before anyone freaks out let me explain the mythos behind my vampires. If you watch all seven seasons of Buffy and every season of Angel you can tell a great similarity between Joss's vampires and the vampires written about by monks in England. I will not bore you with details however I would like to say that I am going to throw in some things that joss had not mentioned. Also I would like to point out that there is going to be a little more religion in this fanfic than was present in Joss's series. I do this so that the dynamic between slayer and vampire is at least slightly more accurate to historical and religious records of vampires. I know that you are all tired of reading this long intro so I will shut up and let you get on with the story.

Watchers Council: New Beginnings

Prologue: The Lone Wolf

Night had settled over the city. Cleveland was a big town. Certainly to big for one slayer to patrol by herself. Luckily this was not the case the streets were not being patrolled by one slayer but thirty slayers many too young and inexperienced to do any damage on there own but in a group they were a force to be reckoned with. Many of the more experienced slayers had been killed when the Sunnydale hellmouth was closed. The slayers that survived had followed The Chosen One here to Cleveland. The watchers council had been working on building a base of operations in Cleveland due to the numerous hot spots in the United States. Unfortunately the watchers council had been destroyed by minions of the first evil. And the new building in Cleveland was not finished. When the slayers had come to Cleveland they had hoped that the council would still be here. What they found was a building empty of life and full of bodies. Every watcher and potential that had moved here from England were dead. The first had shown no mercy upon them.

It had taken weeks of cleaning to erase the smell of blood and Giles had almost given up hope. The tall British immigrant was sitting behind a large mahogany desk in a spacious office overlooking one of Cleveland's public parks. His slayer had incessantly asked him how they were going to get away with using and paying for the building they all lived in. It was a question he was not yet ready to answer. He held a letter in his hands. The paper it was written on looked ancient yet the ink was fresh. At the bottom was a large wax seal baring a large cross. The letter had come from England. The address had puzzled him for some time, the envelope it came in was addressed from the ministry of faith and had been signed by the minister him self however the contents of the letter troubled him more. The letter had said that since the destruction of the council, the Crown deemed it necessary to take control of its activities. The letter went on to say that for far too long the council had operated on a thin line of faith and needed to be put back on the path of the Anglican church. They were also sending an emissary to Cleveland to take over operation of the American branch. Giles was not sure what to do. If it was will of the Crown to take over, then he had no place in telling them that they were wrong. Getting up from his desk he leaned against the window sill and stared out into the night. What was he going to do? He was afraid that as bad as the council was the Crown may be much worse. At least he was going to be able enjoy a good cup of tea again.

Whiles Giles stood in his office Buffy was standing in the middle of a lush park. Willow had received a letter from her ex boy friend Oz. He needed her help and Willow was more than happy to do so. The whole gang was out to help her find him. He had told them he would be in the park but had yet to show up. Standing together the group looked like very suspicious. There was not many of them left. The original gang was still there but over the years they had gained and lost many good people. At the moment the scoobies were made up of Buffy, Willow, Xander, and Dawn. Both Willow and Xander had lost their girlfriends to The First. Xander's fiancé had died and Willows girlfriend had an emotional breakdown and had to be put into an institution. Both had been friends for a long time but their friendship could not fill the whole in their hearts. Buffy had lost a lover but not a love. No man could ever fill the whole on her heart. Dawn had lost a father figure. Not that Buffy would have agreed with that sentiment. In the days since Spike had given his life to save Sunnydale Dawn had come to realize that he had meant more to her than that. There was no reason to dwell on such things. He was gone and no matter how much she cared for him she could not bring him back.

The park was eerie at night. Not that eerie bothered any of them much. Buffy and Dawn had taken point with Xander and Willow behind them. Willow was deep in meditation, attempting to perform a location spell on Oz.

"Shoot" the red head exclaimed. "Its no use I cant get a fix on him, its like my magic is fizzing out."

"Come on Will, how can you be sure of that" Xander was trying to lighten the mood. "Maybe its Oz, maybe he's been cursed or something."

"Xander think before you speak." Dawn retorted. "That would be worse, now wouldn't it."

"Oh, yeah sorry Will." Xander gave Willow his best happy face and smile. "I didn't mean it like that."

"That's ok Xander. I know you didn't." Willow attempted a smile but it failed. "I just want to find him."

"Guys hush." Buffy raised a hand to signal them to stop. "There is something out here."

Willow gave up meditating and the four of them kept quiet. Buffy tried to listen for movement but got nothing.

"Maybe it was nothing." Buffy said.

As Buffy moved forward she gripped the stake tucked in the inside pocket of her leather jacket. She had lost the trail. It was like whoever she had picked up on had just vanished. She turned around to face her friends and shrugged her shoulders.

Swiftly and without warning a shadowy figure leapt at Buffy from the bushes. Launching at her chest Buffy's mysterious attacker pinned her to the ground. Lifting its head to the night sky the hairy creature let out a blood curdling howl.

"Oz!" Willow exclaimed.

The werewolf didn't respond he simply looked at Buffy as if he were picking a place to start. Buffy struggled to get leverage enough to throw him off but was defenseless against him. Struggling was no use, he was too strong. Xander attempted to pull Oz off of Buffy to no avail.

"Will do something." Xander looked at Willow frantically.

"I don't know, Buff is the one with super powers." Willow started to bit her nails.

"Come on guys think of something." Buffy gasped.

Dawn stood back terror in her eyes. She was looking at Buffy not the Buffy with a werewolf on her chest but a scared and troubled Buffy. The Buffy she saw was standing three feet in front of her. Her big sister was going to sacrifice everything for her. She remembered that night so vividly just like she had every night for over two years. Buffy had been within arms reach of her. She had wanted so badly to reached out and stop her from dying but she wasn't strong enough. she still wasn't strong enough to tell her sister the truth. God had given her a job to do. He had given her life, allowed her to see what it was like to be human. But in exchange she had to let Buffy die. She knew that god had a plan for her sister, she knew that Buffy had to die so that she could save the world again. The knowledge didn't change anything, the humanity she had craved for made her feel sick with anguish and pain. She knew Buffy was not going to die tonight at the hand of her friend, yet for the first time since that night she knew who she was and she knew what she needed to do.

Reality snapped back and dawn saw her sister lying on the ground with one of her best friends trying to decide which part of her to eat first. For the first time in her human life Dawn didn't hesitate to act.

Calmly she walked past Willow and Xander. Reaching her sister she bent down and grabbed hold of Oz by the throat. Without much effort she lifted him off of Buffy and pinned him to a nearby tree.

"Whoa, since when can you do that." Xander stood dumbfounded.

"I'll explain everything later but for now we need to get Oz out of here." With that she let go of Oz and he limped in to her arms. Picking him up she hoisted him over her shoulder and headed back to where they were staying.


	2. new sheriff

Authors Note: I would like to say that I now that there were grammatical errors in my last chapter. I will try to keep that from happening again. If you think that I too quickly dismissed Kennedy's character in the prologue, I did not; keep reading though and all will be explained. My beta tester told me that my dialogue needed some work, but I think she just has not watched the show enough to understand the simplicity of how Joss's characters speak. As I have stated in my profile please tell me what you think.

Watchers Council: New Beginnings

Chapter 1: "There's a new sheriff in town"

Morning came just as it did every day. Dawn marvelled at the beauty of the sunrise. She had seen so many in her existence. She had seen the first sunrise eons ago however there was something about looking at one through a humans eyes that was so much more awe inspiring. When god had created man he said they were his children endowed with the one gift he would not give the rest of creation, choice. Humans had the ability to say no to god. Because of this, everything humankind did had much greater importance. Every turn of a leaf was a miracle, every sunrise rapturous. Dawn had been the Key for all eternity yet she had never been as humble as she was at this moment.

Dawn stood in Giles office watching the city wake up. She was trying to decide what she was going to do with herself. The past six hours were a blur. She had over stepped her boundaries. She had broken the rules, god's rules. She had been waiting all night for god to smite her powers, but he had not, why? She had been contemplating this when the sun broke over the horizon and instantly she understood why. God had made her human, screwing up came with the title. As a human being, she could choose. By human standards, she had screwed up a lot over the last few years. She had been terrible on her sister, she had not meant to trouble Buffy she just wanted to experience everything there was to being human. Not once though had she broken the boundaries god had given her. Now standing in this place surrounded by a new hell mouth she felt truly alive.

Dawn leaned against the window and wrapped herself the warmth of the early day sun. The city was slowly starting to come to life. People were milling about on the sidewalk and the perpetual river of traffic was beginning to build. A yellow taxi pulled up to the front of the building. It took dawn a second to register what was happening. She watched as the cabbie pulled luggage to the sidewalk. Her eyes went wide _is someone moving in!_

Dawn rushed from the office and ran to the elevator down the hall. By the time, she reached the lobby the cab was pulling away from the curb. The lobby was empty save a dark clad man about six feet tall. For some reason she felt like she knew him but she could not quit place the feeling. He had olive skin and a British air about him. He had a black fedora on his head covering shoulder length brown hair. He loosely wore a black trench coat, black trousers and a black button-up shirt. His black shoes polished into mirrors. He carried a suitcase in one hand and in the other; he tightly gripped a large katana.

"Um hello, can I help you?" Dawn tried to act casual.

"Ah yes, my name is James, James Davies" he shifted the katana to the other hand shock Dawns hand. The smile plastered on his face contradicted the dominating demeanour he had been giving off. "And you are?"

"Oh, my name is Dawn Summers." Dawn could not help giggling like a schoolchild.

"Yes, yes the Key. I have so wanted to meet you." His face was so sincere yet Dawn could not help but feel shocked. "I'm sorry is that not common knowledge around here."

"Its not that, I'm just a little bit taken back. How do you know I'm the key?" Dawn returned her hand to her pocket.

"I apologize, I was sent by the Ministry of Faith." His face was washed in a glow the cloud swoon hearts and spur war. "The Crown has put me in charge of the American branch of the Watchers Council."

"We already have a watcher." Dawn was confused.

"Surly Mr. Giles knew I was coming." James adjusted his hate and straightened his coat.

"He didn't tell us anything." Dawn exclaimed.

The doors to the elevator opened and deposited Giles and the Scooby's into the lobby. James approached Giles put down his things and threw up his arms.

"Ripper, how are you old dog!" he slapped his hands down on Giles's shoulders.

"James, what are you doing here" Giles had a smile on his face.

"As I was just telling Ms. Summers, I have been sent by the Ministry." James cocked his head and took in Giles appearance.

"You're the Ministries emissary?" pushed up his glasses, and stuffed his hands in his pockets.

"Hold on a minute Giles." Buffy spoke up. "What do you mean by emissary?"

"And why did he call you Ripper" this came from dawn she had a perplexed look on her face. The last person they had known to call him by that name tried to kill them.

"This is an old chum of mine from Oxford." Giles said hoping to satisfy her. "And he has been sent here by the British government to take over the Watchers Council."

"So what he's supposed to be my watcher now." Buffy said with a mock scoff. "Cause that didn't work the last time the council tried it."

"To be quit honest Wesley Price was a idiot, and anyway it is my belief that you no long require a watcher." James stood tall he was not about to let even the Chosen One, berate him like a common thug.

"I like him already." Buffy said, addressing Giles. "But if your not here to be my watcher then why are you here?"

"There are nearly thirty other slayers in this building. And unlike you they need a watcher lest they get killed by some unholy monster in this city." James circled Buffy like a hawk.

Buffy felt small. She had not thought about the girls at all. "Your right, they do need a watcher. But why can't Giles be their watcher?"

"Because Giles has lost his path, on several occasions he has proven that he would sacrifice human life to save and protect you." James stooped pacing and looked into Giles's eyes. "Something like that simply cannot be accepted. Life is sacred good or evil. No man has the right to take another's life. I think you know that." James turned his gaze to Buffy searching her soul. "He must search his soul and find restitution with god for the things he has done."

"He's right Buffy." Dawn had been quite for some time. "The slayer is a symbol of god."

"God, what does god have to do with anything." Buffy stared at dawn. "Was god there when mom died?"

_Damn her_ "God has everything to do with it." Dawn could not look at her sister. "God is the reason you're still alive." Her face streaked with tears and her voice began to crack.

"We raised Buffy from the dead not god." Xander could not stand to remain quiet any longer.

"The petty demon you tried to sell your souls too could not raise Buffy from the dead. If you had succeeded in your spell Buffy would be nothing more than a zombie." James coolly walked over to his suitcase and lifted his things off the ground. "Her resurrection has been foretold for centuries. It is a miracle you didn't foul everything up, now before we start ripping each others throats out I could use a cup of tea."


	3. Big Bad and His Ball n' Chain

Authors Note: for all of you waiting on Angel and the gang to show up you do not have much longer to hang in there. Please read and review. Oh and P.S. just in case you want to know I always pictured Orlando Bloom as James not sure why.

Watchers Council: New Beginnings

Chapter 2: Big Bad and His Ball n' Chain

It was noon in Cleveland. The Scooby gang had retreated to a room Giles was using as his apartment. Leaning over a make shift stove Giles took a teakettle off the fire and started to pour three cups. Buffy and Dawn were sitting down on a couch with Willow and Xander leaning against the wall behind them. James sat in a chair cross from Buffy with a coffee table between them. Giles brought a tray with three cups over to the table. Sitting down in the chair next to James, and handed a cup of tea to Dawn and James.

"Before anyone else starts to yell or cry, I need you all to understand something. I was sent here by the Crown to take over the activities of the slayers. The Ministry of Faith believes that the reason the Watchers Council had been destroyed was due to its wavering belief in god. It is my responsibility to make sure that every slayer finds faith. This may sound strange to you but the fate of the planet rests on whether or not these girls find god. It is my observation that in order to properly take care of these girls needs we need more than one watcher. For this reason, I have contacted an old friend of mine who has agreed to help me. He should be arriving some time today." James sat and gazed at the group around him.

"I'm sure we will all be willing to help out." Giles avoided making eye contact with anyone. He instead seemed to find something interesting on his teacup.

"I agree." Dawn sat her teacup down on the tray. The eyes of the other Scoobies looked unsure. "I never said anything before but I think we would have all been better off if we had dealt with this long ago."

"I'm not sure I agree." Willow moved away from the wall and leaned against the back of the couch. "I have been a Wicca for sometime and I just can't see how there can be one all knowing god."

"You of all people should know that witchcraft is dangerous and unpredictable. You may not see it yet but eventually you will learn that witchcraft is just glorified Satanism." With that, he stood up. "However I can see that with everything you have been through you need to be shone that what I speak is the truth. Let us visit your werewolf friend; I think he at least will be more cooperative."

James set down his cup and walked out the door. Slowly the Scoobies began to follow him. Without direction, he briskly walked down the hall until he reached an elevator. Once in side he waited for the rest of the group to join him before pressing the button for the sub basement.

"How did you know that a werewolf was in the building?" Buffy was leaning against the wall.

"I could smell him from outside the building." James kept a strait face and watched as the floor numbers clicked by.

"How could you smell him like that?" Willow seemed to become intrigued.

"Just something I picked up a few years ago." James stepped over in front of the doors to the elevator.

The doors parted opening out into a concrete room in the middle of the room was a large iron cage. A young man was seated on a bench inside the cage. He was about medium height with short brown hair. When he saw the gang, he got up and walked to the bars.

"Hey, red" He looked at Willow with a sense of longing. "How are you?"

"I'm good, how are you?" Willow walked over toward the bars. "Haven't heard from you in a while."

"Yeah, I've been kinda busy" Oz reached for her hand through the bars.

Willow flinched. "Don't get me wrong I'm glad your back but how did you get this address."

Oz laughed he had not thought about that. "He gave it to me." He said point towards James.

"You" Willow had turned her gaze to James. "How do you know him" Willow could not figure it out.

"I met him in England. He had contracted a disease common to certain groups of werewolves. Think of it as the next step in his evolution. Certain covens of werewolves have the ability to become more than just a werewolf. They can control there transformations to pass more freely among other humans. Oz had come to join a coven in England reputed for having this curse. Not being from the coven him self all they could do was infect him had hope that the process worked." James walked over to Oz's cage and handed him a crucifix from his pocket. Oz took it, wrapped the chain around his right arm, and held the cross firmly in his hand. "He came to the church seeking asylum. When I talked with him, he told me he came to England hoping to find a way to be with his girl friend, without risking her life. He spent over two years in study of the bible. And when I thought he was ready I gave him the address to this place."

"So that's the truth." Buffy looked over at James.

"What can I say I'm only human." James smirked and walked over to Oz and placed his hand on Oz's forehead. "Please step away all of you. In the name of god, come out."

Oz jerked let go of the bars and felt to the floor. A moment later, he jerked again. He began to change, fur growing all over his body. His hands shifted long claws replacing his fingernails. His knees popped and joints shifted. The whole process took less than a minute. The process complete the beast rose to his feet. He lifted his head up, howling in defiance, and jumped at the cage bars. He could smell them all, for a second the best smelled something familiar. His conscience snapped back and he could see her standing right in front of him. He had never had this much control over his actions before. He wanted to be with her but not like this. He turned and ran knocking over the bench and slamming into the bars on the other side. Slowly he let himself sit down on the ground. He was afraid, there was no way in heaven and earth that a woman like that should ever love him.

"I think you need to go in there." James opened the cage door and nodded to willow. "You are the only person that can save him now. He has found restitution with god but only you can make him embrace it."

Willow simply nodded. She walked into the cage without really thinking. She jumped when James slammed the door shut behind her but she could not look back now. Slowly she walked forward.

"Oz, can you hear me." Willow was not sure what to do. When she got within two feet of him, he slowly turned his head to face her. His teeth were dripping with spittle and his eyes looked sinister. All of a sudden, she was not sure she was doing the right thing or not. She started to step back but stopped. _This man has gone through hell so he could be with me. Kennedy would never have done that. It was a chore getting her to tell me she loved me, and then I had to have sex with her or she would get frustrated and storm off. She would never have gone through what Oz has and neither would Tara._ She had to think about that for a second. _As much as I told Tara I loved her I did everything I could to force her to love me. I was too consumed with power to really love anyone. Oz caught me making out with Xander and he still sacrificed everything so he could find a way to be with me._ She gathered herself and walked up to oz kneeling down she laid a hand on his shoulder. When she did, he jerked his head in her direction. Willow did not move her hand, instead she lend in and kissed him lightly on the forehead.

He was shocked she did love him even as a werewolf she loved him. He had not sacrificed himself in vain. In that moment, he knew that everything was going to be ok.

He willed himself to change back and for the first time his body listened to him. With out thinking he kissed her. He had wanted to kiss her for a very long time. He kissed her deeply and let go of all of the tension that had been building over the last four years.

"Yes well, I can see we need to come back at a later date." James turned to the rest of the group. "My associate should be arriving in a few moments. We should go to they lobby and greet him." he turned to leave and stopped. "Oh, Willow be sure the two of you are in the third floor conference room in about thirty minutes." As he continued to walk away, the only response he received was a moan.

He gang walked into the lobby form the elevator shortly after. The lobby looked common to most big businesses. There was a circular welcome desk in the middle of the large hall, with the main doors to the building about ten feet in front of it. The lobby was used as a common hall connecting a medium sized mess hall to several open and spacious classrooms. The building itself was ten stories tall, containing dorm styled room for the slayers as well as a large library, a nice sized chapel, a gym overlooking the park in front of the building, and numerous classrooms. The gang now stood around the welcome desk.

"Are you sure you can trust the two of them down there by themselves." Buffy said throwing James a mock serious look.

"I hope so. If not I'll be seeing Oz in confession tomorrow." With that, Xander and Buffy cracked up laughing. "You think I'm joking but I expect to see the both of you in chapel tomorrow morning."

They still could not help but laugh. However, there jovial mood changed as soon as the doors to the lobby opened to reveal their guests.

The cold had been nipping at his neck for three blocks. "Why couldn't we have driven here? I'm freezing my horns off." Lorne hated the cold that is why he lived in L.A.

"Oh quite your bickering you over grown baby. A little cold isn't going to kill you" Spike put another cigarette in his mouth and lit the end. "we told you the guys at the car rental would have been suspicious seeing a green man with horns and a girl half out of her mind with blue veins bulging out of her bloody face." referring to Lorne and Fred.

"Will the two of you shut-up already. God I can't take you anywhere." Angel was sick and tired of their yapping. He had almost forgotten where they were. Buffy was standing six feet in front of him, she looked shocked not that he was surprised. James was standing in front of the desk with his hands in his pockets. His fedora tilted back on his head. "God, James it's been a long time." He walked over and hugged him.

"Too long old friend. I see you decided to take me up on my offer about your staff." James said while gesturing the motley crew standing in his lobby.

"Yeah well they all wanted to come. Though I'm not sure Fred's' aware that we went anywhere." Angel turned his attention towards the group. "She hasn't said much since Wesley died."

"I'm sorry to hear that." James said patting angels arm.

"Its ok I'm hopping that working with the girls will help." Angel smiled. "So this is the gang huh? Where is Willow?" he looked around the room and did not see her. "I hope nothing happened."

"No everything is fine she will meet with us later." James said.

"So, how are you" Buffy decided it was best to say something.

Angel turned his attention to Buffy, not that it was hard. "I'm good, killed some lawyers saved the world, the usual." She was so beautiful.

Dawn saw him standing there and could not think of what to do. For so long she had thought that he was dead but to see him standing there so jovial and carefree. She decided she needed to do something. She walked over to him and tapped on his shoulder.

He turned and saw the beautiful thing in the world. "Hey bit, god I've missed you. Looks like you got out of Sunnydale in one piece." She did not say anything she was not sure what she should say.

Finally, she decided acting was the only way to say it. She jumped up and grabbed onto his shoulders and kissed him deeper and more passionately than she had ever kissed anyone.


	4. faithless

Authors Note: Hello, everyone, for those of you that read my story so far and did not like it, let me know. I would like to know what you think. I realize that there is a lot of religion in this fanfic. This cannot be helped, as I am a divinity student. However, I swear that I am not doing it needlessly. I honestly think that it is necessary to the story. Please R&R.

Watchers Council: New Beginnings

Chapter 3: Faithless

This day was getting stranger and stranger. Buffy felt like she was trapped in bizzaro world. Her sister was making out with her somewhat ex-boyfriend her best friend was down stairs making out with a werewolf, and the one man she wanted to be with more than anything in the world was standing right in front of her and on top of all that she was officially watcher less. She kept pinching herself hoping that she would wake up back in Sunnydale. Back to a time when her sister was just a normal girl and Angel was just a memory. She wanted Giles to hold her and tell her everything was going to be ok. Reality started to sink in. The new watcher James had told them about was Angel. He was a vampire, how could he be a watcher. _I am going to have to work with Angel everyday. God must hate me._ That was the only answer she could come up with. What else could explain the past twenty-four hours?

"My word, you can cut the sexual tension in this room with a knife." James took off his hat and dusted off the top. "I think we could all do for a good cup of tea and a nice sit."

"God, you're even more English than Giles." Xander cracked. "I thought that was impossible." Xander tried to lighten the mood but as always, he failed miserably.

"I find that quite insulting." James looked almost hurt. "I'm not even from England" James passed by Xander and smiled. "I'll have you know, I am from Wales, one of the greatest and most technologically ignorant countries in the world. Why my mum just installed a coal heater last week." A wide mischievous grin spread across his face.

"What I'm I going to do with you two." Buffy cupped her head in her hands and shook it disapprovingly.

"I think it's refreshing that a man of his age has kept his sense of humour intact." Angel said picking up his suitcase. "You should have heard him a hundred years ago, nothing but witless banter." He smiled and let his statement sink in. "How about we all find a place more relaxing to talk this over. The stooges behind me are driving me nuts.'

After a few minutes, the misfit gang had retreated up stairs to the conference room off Giles office. The room was of good size a large conference table sat in the middle surrounded by executive chairs. At the head of the table, James stood arms crossed behind his back. He looked like he belonged on a reality TV show. He had shed his hat and coat though he did not look any less intimidating. The Scoobies had taken seats at his right. Oz and Willow had been waiting for them. Willow swore that nothing had happened and she felt they needed to be here just in case he had decided to come early. Xander had laughed and Buffy patted willows back and took a seat next to her. Giles and Angel sat next to each other at his right Lorne was standing up trying to warm up his horns and Fred was hiding in a corner. It had taken several minutes for Dawn and Spike to realize that they needed to follow them. Naturally, they were the last to arrive. Walking into the room Dawn noticed all eyes were on her and Spike. Quickly she rounded the table and sat down next to angel.

"Well I'm sure you will all agree that this has been a very strange day." Nods came from all around. "I'm afraid that it may become stranger before the night is out." James waited to collect his thoughts. "I know many of you have questions concerning exactly who I am. I am not going to go into all five hundred odd years I have been on earth. Let us suffice it to say I am the oldest person in this room and no, I am not what you would classify as being wholly alive. I am not however undead. I have been known by many names in the past few centuries but my favourite is Reaper. I am not sure why exactly but the name does spread well among the masses. I used to be flesh and blood just like all of you but due to unfortunate circumstances, I died. My death was not in vain, though I sacrificed my life for the one woman I loved. Due to the way I had both lived and died I was granted the job of returning to earth and continuing the fight against evil." James wiped sweat from his brow. "Do you have any questions?"

"You mean to say you're an angel." Xander had a knack for making obvious and wrong statements.

"No I'm not. Humans cannot become angels. God created angels long before he created people." James glanced around the table they were all being very quiet. "Dawn do you think you could explain it better."

"I could try." Dawn sat up and her chair. "You see when god created earth he created angels and men, two completely different species of organism. Angels were given god like power and worshiped god in everything they did however, god was not satisfied he wanted children that would worship him freely under no pretence other than a desire to worship him. That is why he created humankind. God had neglected to give angels one gift, choice. Angels had to worship god and do what he says. If they do not they become fallen and are sent to any of the numerous hell dimensions. Therefore, god created man and gave him freedom of choice. Humans aren't as powerful as angels but they can freely choose what they do and who they believe in. now I won't lie and tell you that there isn't consequence for the actions men take when they are on earth but they are given every opportunity to make the choice to follow god." Dawn slunk back into her chair.

"How do you know all of this Dawn?" Xander had a look on his face that resembled that of a lost puppy.

Dawn sat back up she was not sure if she wanted to tell them or not. "Because, I am an angel Xander."

The group as a whole looked shocked. She felt an uneasiness in the pit of her stomach. She was afraid that she had made the wrong decision. She looked to James and he just stood and smiled. The kind of paternal smile that made children feel like everything was going to be ok. His smile wrapped her in a blanket of security. She knew instantly that she had made the right choice.

"I'm afraid her statement wasn't wholly accurate. Dawn is not an angel. Dawn is the Key, a celestial being created for the soul purpose of leading the Chosen One to final battle against hell. Now though she retains all of the memory of her past self, she is in fact human and in every sense of the word she is Buffy's sister." James began to pace around the room.

"If she is really human how did she knock me out last night?" Oz was trying to remember the events from the night before.

"You can think of Dawn like a slayer. She is physically stronger than normal people are and has the same extra senses a slayer has." James rounded the table to stand in front of Dawn. "Does that sound accurate to you?"

"Pretty much, I also don't age the same as most humans and I heal faster than slayers." Dawn gave Spike a smirk.

"Don't get any ideas Bit." Spike grinned. "I'm not doing anything to taint my soul."

"Oh god could the two of you knock it off. I'm sitting right here." Buffy was exasperated.

"Well then I think we should get started. I appreciate you not telling Miss Faith about our little meeting." James returned to the head of the table. "I don't want her training the slayers anymore."

"Why not, she may be deranged but she knows what she's doing." Buffy did not understand.

"She's incorrigible and a negative influence on the girls. There is a reason she is referred to as the Dark Slayer." James straightened his shirt. "Don't worry I will tell her personally."

"You may want to warn us first so we can phone 9-1-1 in advance." Xander had a knack for the understatement.

"Don't worry I'll be ok. Now down to the business at hand." He unbuttoned his sleeves and rolled them up to his elbows. "Now as I'm sure you all know this building was designed to be a school of sorts. The training of a slayer involves more than just conditioning the body but the mind as well. For this reason I am going to require that each of contributes in an academic fashion."

"What do you mean by contribute?" willow was curious as to how they could help the slayers academically. "I mean none of us are exactly teacher material."

"I hope you can be. You all have certain expertise that could lend to the classroom." James was trying to get his point across without being blunt however that rout didn't seem to be working. "Quite frankly I want you all here but I can't justify having you just sit around. You all need to be doing something in an official capacity."

"So we either have to actually do a real job or we have to leave." Buffy didn't sound pleased.

"With the exception of you, that's exactly what I mean." James hoped he didn't sound overbearing.

"Hey I'm not sure you noticed or not but unless you want me teaching drafting and architecture I'm not going to be of much help." Xander was truly concerned that he was going to be kicked to the curb.

"Not at all, form what I hear you have extensive military training." James was willing to go to any extreme to make sure that he didn't have to split this group up. "I was hoping you could teach physical education. By that I mean more than just playing dodge ball. Giving the girl survival training, running obstacle courses, things like that."

"Oh, hell I can do that with my hands tied behind my back." Xander was relived he had been truly afraid he had to leave.

"Good, now before the rest of you start asking me what your official duties here are going to be I have already made lists of the classes I want you to teach as well as a basic curriculum." James picked up a stack of folders he had placed on the table and started to pass out packets of information. "Giles will be teaching the girls in all aspects of history focusing primarily on how the supernatural coincides with events in human history. Angle will of course be assisting me as the girl's Watcher." He pulled a file out from the pile and handed it to dawn. "As I understand it you have an extensive knowledge in ancient languages. I would like you to teach a class on encryption and deciphering as well as teaching foreign language." Moving on to spike he cocked an eye brow. "I hope you haven't lost your poetic touch. I want you to teach English and literature. After all literacy is the foundation of human intellect."

"As long as you give me room to hit something every now and then I'll be fine." Spike scowled he still loved to write and he had no problems teaching but he had worked up nearly a hundred years of aggression that need work out every now and then.

"Now moving on I would like Oz to teach a class on Practical Mythology. Your involvement in various werewolf covens should have left loads of knowledge on the civilisations of vampires and the like." He cast sideways glance to Lorne but still addressed Oz "I would also like for you to be open to teaching music classes."

Lorne had bit his hook. "What about me, I'm sure I now more about music than post-grunge over here." Lorne looked truly upset.

"I'm not giving you a job to do here because you're a demon. Half demon I'll grant you, but you and Fred need to spend some time in prayer and mediation before I will allow either of you to take on any official responsibility. With that said I think you may become invaluable to this organization." He moved on and placed a folder in front of willow.

"I can understand that, and I won't lie and tell you I don't understand the implications of having a demon working here. But I want you to know that I came here with Angel so I could do some good in this world." Lorne had said his peace and resigned to pacing again.

"I understand, now willow I want you to handle teaching the girls science. We will start with a general anatomy and biology class. I'm hoping that you and Oz can chain some of your lectures together and show the girls the difference between human anatomy and that of the various deferent half-demons they will be facing in the field." This elected a nod of approval and giddy laughter was exchanged between her and Oz. James returned to the head of the table took in the sight of them.

"What about me?" Buffy admitted that she was hurt by being passed up on the responsibility chain. "I don't have anything to do."

"Yes well, the church is signing over all legal guardianship of these girls over to you." James tried to avoid looking directly at her.

"Guardianship, you want me to be their mother!" Buffy was outraged.

"That is precisely what the crown has done. Being as this building is property of England we won't have to worry about silly American authorities however you will be responsible for the girls well being." James decided that he would leave it at that. "Now I think we should all retire for the evening so we can start fresh tomorrow morning." James began to leave but stopped just short of the door. "Oh Angel after you get your people settled I would like to see you in the work out room. I have a feeling it will take both of us to handle faith."


	5. The Job

Authors Note: I am not yet sure, whether I want to make this an episode driven fanfic or a longer book styled fanfic. Please read and review.

Watchers Council: New Beginnings

Chapter 4: The Job

The past few years seemed like a blur. Nothing felt real anymore. For nearly a year, Angel had been in charge of one of the worlds most evil organizations. He thought he could make a difference if he was in charge of Wolfram and Hart. He guessed wrong, he was surrounded by the very evil that he had tried to fight. The biggest mistake he had ever made was leaving Sunnydale. Nothing had gone right since that fateful day five years ago. He had lost so many people, people he cared about very deeply. Wesley, Gun, Cordelia, Conner, they were all dead. He had even lost Lorne's trust, the only reason he had come along to Cleveland was he thought he could do more good here than in his club back in Los Angeles. Angel could not blame him; no one seemed to trust him. Even here, he could not pass by any of the people he thought were his friends without feeling there fear or suspicion. The only person in this entire building that made him feel welcome was James. James was different though, he had always believed in him even before he got his soul back. There was one other person in the building that did not fear him. Faith did not fear him she wanted him to fear her.

It was quite the task James had presented him, Trying to rein faith in on a leash. He was not sure if such a thing was possible but for James sake, he would try. The Slayers had a rec. room on the fourth floor James had asked to meet him there so they could address the slayers all at once. When he reached the doors, James was already standing there waiting.

"I'm not so sure about this any more angel. Thirty hormonal teenage girls are a scary thing." James smiled.

"I know what you mean." Angel dusted off his jacket. "No time like the present."

James nodded straightened his shirt and headed through the double doors. A gaggle of teenage girls stood around pool tables and large leather sofas. They all looked wearily at the new arrivals.

"Hello everyone, I wanted to come up here personally and tell you how wonderful it's going to be to get to work with all of you." The slayers stood around and just stared.

"Try that again but make it sound a little less British." Angel smiled and chuckled.

"Alright, sorry about that, I haven't been in this country for very long" James laughed and pulled his shirt straight. "What I meant to say was I am going to be your new watcher."

"Who says we need a watcher." Faith of course moseyed over to give her own opinion.

"Well quite frankly I do." James stood tall and stared down the dark slayer. "Do you have a problem with that?"

"You bet your ass I have a problem with that." Faith was itching for a fight.

"Alright then, everyone I am only going to say this once if any of you has a problem with the way this council is run than too bad. The council is now under the jurisdiction of the British government. Therefore, you are all British citizens, not only that but you are the legal children of Buffy Summers. Faith is the only exception to this rule therefore; she does not have to stay. Well what are you waiting for faith? I do not care if you stay or go; in fact, I think these girls would be much better off without you. Nevertheless, do know this if you walk out of this building you will no longer have diplomatic immunity. I'm sure there are plenty of American agencies that would love to put you behind bars." James did not flinch but he could feel Faiths blood boiling.

"What makes you think I wont kill you right here." Faith looked sinister, but James had seen scarier.

"Everyone up stairs, if Faith wants to fight me then I am more than happy to oblige." James motioned to the door. "After you"

Faith stormed out of the room. James followed her while Angel waited until all of the slayers had left before following. They all climbed the stairs between floors. Once at the top they reached a large room that had its walls and flooring covered in think foam mats.

"Alright I want the slayers to form a straight line hugging the walls. This is to ensure that Faith does not try to throw me against the wall." James watched as every one of the slayers followed his orders, each gossiping about him in the process. "Now faith how about we start with a little warm up exercise, turn around I want to see if you can anticipate my attack." James waited until she complied.

"I don't know why I'm bothering with this." Faith turned around as she was asked. "There's nothing you can throw at me that I can't deflect right back at you."

"Really, is that a fact." James nodded to angel to stand next to faith. Once he had, James removed a dagger from one of the racks on the wall. Without warning, James hurled the dagger directly at faiths head.

He had not been expecting James to do something this harsh. Angel had hardly registered the dagger before it was inches from faiths head. Reaching out he managed to absorb the daggers blow bore it hit. He was now on his knees with a large dagger stabbed straight through his left hand.

Faith turned around when she heard the impact. Looking down she saw angel trying to remove the dagger from his hand.

"What the…" faith was out raged "did you just try to throw a knife at my head."

"I didn't try anything. I did throw a dagger at your head. Just as I had predicted you did not even know the dagger was there. You are not a true slayer. The real slayer would have seen that a mile away. Hell Buffy could have caught that when she was first called, and she had not received Potential training as you did." James pulled a handkerchief from his pocket and began wiping the sweat from his brow.

Faith was furious, she reacted instantly, and grabbing the knife from Angles hand, she pulled it out and hurled it deep in James's chest in one fluid motion.

"Damn, boy that's going to leave a stain. Oh my, what am I going to do with you faith." James had not even batted an eyelid. Grabbing the handle of the knife, he pulled it out slowly and then began to clean it off with his handkerchief. "That is exactly why you are no longer going to have any responsibility regarding these girls. I am going to have your quarters moved as far from theirs as possible. I do not even want you to smile at them, you will spend your days in prayer and reading the bible and when you are not doing that you will have private training sessions with me. We will se if we cannot work out your demons. Now report to your quarters I will see that supper is sent there for you."

Faith stormed out of the room. Once she had left, James addressed the girls.

"I am deeply sorry that you had to see that display. Now I was not lying to you when I said that Buffy is now your legal mother. So do not be surprised if you begin to see a much different side of her. Now wee all have a long day ahead of us so I suggest you all return to your quarters for the night. There will be a formal assembly tomorrow in the mess hall. We are all going to start a regular school schedule. How do you like the idea of pizza for dinner." That had knocked the girls out of their stupor. They all began to cheer and shout out ridiculous orders of what they wanted on their pizza. James smiled this is what the job should be like. Everything was going to be just fine he hoped.


	6. The First Day

Authors Note: to everyone who has read this and thinks that there is too much religion mentioned in this story please keep reading. Read and review

Watchers Council: New Beginnings

Chapter 5: The First Day

Morning was rising over Cleveland and the Watchers Council. They had been able to last through one day so far and James was thankful that faith had decided to stay. He had come down stairs early to wait for his slayers to show up for the assembly. As he entered the kitchen looking for a coffee pot, a young man with sandy hair was pouring batter into several large waffle irons.

"Hello exactly who are you sir." James walked past him to the coffee pot on the wall and poured the tantalizing black liquid into his ceramic mug. "I was not aware we had hired a cook as of yet."

The young man was only half listening to him as he juggled stacks of waffles. After he had several dozen of the pastries in metal serving bins he turned to address the senior watcher.

"I'm Andrew, and I guess I'm the cook. When we arrived here from Sunnydale Buffy asked me to cook dinner for them with what ever we had and I guess I just fell into the job." Andrew kept walking around trying to make sure breakfast was ready. "I'll tell you what slayers can eat a lot of food. I will hardly have this much out in the lines before their asking for more. It's a lot for one man to do."

James chuckled and watched the nervous young man at his work.

"I'll tell you what, I will have Willow place an advertisement in the local newspaper for an assistant later this afternoon." James was about to leave the room when Andrew called after him.

"I do a lot more than just cooking too if you could get someone well rounded I would be very happy." Andrew wiped the sweat from his forehead with the back of his sleeve as he contemplated anything he had missed.

James walked out into the mess hall where slayers were already starting to congregate. Some of them had taken places at the many circular tables while some were anxiously waiting in line. He moved over to the middle of the two serving lines and waited for the rest of the group to arrive.

Willow and Oz had woken up early so they would not be late for the assembly. More accurately, Willow had gotten up early and was badgering Oz to get up. Once they were ready, they went down stairs running into Buffy and Xander on the way. The four Scoobies reached the mess hall just in time to see Andrew scrambling to get the slayers waffles out before they mauled him. Willow laughed at the sight of him, it was unfair that they expected him to do all of this stuff but none of them knew the first thing about working a stove.

"I wonder where Dawn is?" Buffy looked around the room. "I didn't she her after the meeting last night."

"Maybe she's afraid of us. We were kind of hard on her yesterday." Xander smiled hoping he could lighten the mood.

"Yeah I know I still can't believe she was kissing Spike like that. I'm going to have nightmares for years." She crossed her arms over her chest. "I almost threw up."

"After seeing them last night I think your going to have to get used to them being like that." Willow had her arm wrapped around Oz's waist.

"Yeah they were totally electric." Oz had almost been able to feel the energy they had giving off during the meeting the night before.

"That's the last thing I need." Buffy rubbed her forehead.

When they had entered the mess hall, several slayers had waved at Buffy and shouted things like "hey mom" and "morning mommy". She was officially freaked out. "Ok I don't know how much longer I can take this. They aren't that much younger than I am."

"You better get used to it." Dawn had come up behind them. Thankfully, for Buffy, she was not with Spike but then she noticed the jacket she was wearing. "You're the Chosen One; the prophecy says you will lead an army of slayers against hell. Some texts even refer to you as a "warrior matron" meaning that you are destined to be the mother these girls need to survive." Dawn pulled a cigarette out from Spike's jacket and lit the end. Puffing out a long drag, she smiled and started to walk into the mess hall.

"What are you doing? When did you start smoking?" Buffy was astonished.

"It's not like it can do any damage to my lungs." Dawn retorted. "Plus the look on your face was priceless."

"Well you're not going to smoke around my girls." Buffy took the smoke form Dawns lips and threw it into a trashcan after extinguishing the end. "Oh god I'm turning into my mother." Buffy turned around and went to the kitchen to get a cup of coffee.

James watched the action from his vantage point at the front of the room. All he could do was shake his head and pray that they got better at accepting who Dawn was. His biggest problem though was it seemed that Angles associates with the exception of Spike were keeping a distance from the Scoobies. Buffy and the others did not seem keen on associating with them either. He so badly needed them to get along. However, for the moment all he could do was hope for the best. After all of the slayers had eaten, he began his announcement.

"Good morning everyone I know we have not all had a chance to get acquainted with each other but I would like to say that I am already very proud of all of you. I have spent the evening reading reports from Buffy about your progress before you all ascended. I hope you understand why I have suspended Faith from training with you." James began to pace. "Now obviously we have not yet arranged class schedules, so I am going to assign each of your teachers' class rooms and you can move around from class to class and meet each of them. Now Buffy will be wandering in and out of each class so you can ask her any questions you have. If you cannot find her, I will also be wandering between classes, as will you other watcher, Angel will you come up here with me. Angle or Angelus to those of us over a hundred, is going to be your watcher as well." A little girl no older than twelve raised her hand. "Yes what is your name?"

"My name is Marsha, isn't Angle a vampire Mr. Davies." The girl looked very confused.

"Yes he is a vampire; however Mr. Angel has been given his soul back. I am not going into the details however; he is one of the foremost experts in martial arts and can teach each of you quite a lot. Now let us get to the tour of classrooms. Oz there should be a large lecture hall on the second floor you can use, Willow you should find science labs on the fifth floor, and the rest of you can take the classrooms on the sixth floor. Now if you don't have any more questions lets begin."


	7. Motherhood

A/N: this is a short chapter but I wanted to do this before continuing.

Watchers Council: New Beginnings

Life seemed so surreal. Buffy had spent the past month trying to get over the loss of Sunnydale. Now she stood in the middle of a mass of slayers who were gossiping about how cute there new watcher was and the excitement of taking classes that actually sounded fun for once in their lives. She was positive that Willow was beside herself with anticipation over getting to teach. Buffy was happy for her friend Willow had gotten Oz back and was getting to do something she had always loved. Buffy was not so sure about how the whole motherhood thing. She had not enjoyed having to treat Dawn that way and she was sure that she was going to screw up. Dawn was another subject altogether. Where had the Spike thing come from? As Buffy looked back on the last few years, it was clear that everything Dawn had ever done had been for the sake of being human. She had literally experimented with all aspects of human life and behaviour. She hoped that Dawn's impulses would soothe now that she had responsibilities here with the slayers. James had surprised her the day before she had not been expecting such a radical change in the way they lived. What was the most frustrating to Buffy was that she seemingly had the short end of the stick. All of her friends now had real jobs they had to plan lessons and take responsibility for the education of her slayers. Moreover, while being a mother is a challenging job it was not a formal one. It bothered Buffy that her girls seemed to take the news of her being their legal guardian seriously but at the same time, it did not seem to affect them. They had latched on to her as if they had always been her daughters. It frightened her as a councillor she had seen the trauma kids went through in bad parental situations. It seemed like all she could do was pray and hope that her girls would see the love she had for all of them.


	8. Who am I

A/N: I know this took a long time to come out but I hope you enjoy.

I don't not own Buffy of any thing else in this story

Chapter 8: Who am I

Fred stood by one of the windows in the small apartment she had been given and stared out into the Cleveland night. Who was she, what was her purpose in life, at one point she was sure of herself, she was Illyria and she was feared. But now she didn't feel much like being feared now she just wanted to be left alone. Fred walked into her bath room and placed her hands on the sink to support her weight. She was exhausted; she had never been exhausted before. She had gone toe to toe with demons twice her size and walked away barely winded. So why was she so tired? She looked at her self in the mirror above the sink. Looking back at her was a mess of pale flesh and blue bulging veins. Hate suddenly overcame her.

"Ahhh, that's not my face." Fred lifted up her hands and smashed them straight through the glass. "That's not… that's not who I am." Fred slumped to the floor and clutched her bleeding fists. She was alone and confused. The face in the mirror did not belong to her and yet she could not remember what her face was supposed to look like.

"I'm not Fred… I'm not Fred…" she repeated over and over until she fell to sleep.

When she had finally woken up it took a few seconds for her to remember why she was laying in her bathroom floor. Looking down at her hands she realized that there was still glass embedded in them. Carefully she pulled the glass out and cleaned up the blood on her hands and the floor. Not long ago her hands would have healed almost instantaneously. Now she feared it would take days for her hands to heal properly.

She was confused nothing seemed right. She had clear memories of everything she had ever done as Illyria yet she could also remember everything Fred had ever done everyone she had ever known and every emotion she had ever experienced. The sensation was frightening. She all of a sudden wanted nothing more than to find angel and confide everything to him. Angel, the mere thought of him made her woozy. These could not be her feelings her desires and yet she genuinely felt them.

Not knowing what else to do she got up of the floor and left her apartment. Making her way down the hall she ran into numerous slayers all of which gave her strange looks at her blood stained clothing. She did not care what they thought of her all that mattered was that she got answers.

Reaching the other side of the floor that her apartment was located on she stood before large oak doors. With out any care she shoved them open and walked into what had once been Giles's office. The room now served as an office for James Davies. She liked him she wasn't sure why exactly but he made her comfortable.

When she walked in James was sitting behind his desk addressing Xander and Willow. Both of the Scooby's gave her a perplexed look and stared back at James.

"You can both leave now. I will get back to you later." James said as Willow and Xander left the room. Once they had gone he focused all of his attention to Fred. "How are you this morning?" James casually remarked. He had a feeling that no one had ever treated her as a simple girl before. When she did not respond he continued. "I wanted to talk to you."

"Yes." She wasn't sure what to say. She knew why she was there but she had been expecting to start the conversation. "What do you want?"

"Angel and I were wondering if you would like to work with the girls." James offer sounded appealing to her but what on earth could she do.

"What exactly do you want me to do?" She decided that her own problems could wait. "I don't exactly have any experience doing anything."

"That's where your wrong young lady." James got up from his desk and lifted a folder handing it to the woman. "This has a photo of someone you might recognize."

Opening the folder she immediately knew who it was. "Mama…Papa…"

As soon as she had said it she regretted it. She had an enormous amount of caring and affection towards these people but they weren't really her parents.

"I have been in contact with them off and on. They seem to have this crazy idea that their daughter isn't really dead." Illyria shot up her eyes and peered directly into his.

"Fred is gone. I am Illyria." She threw down the photo and turned to leave.

Before she could open the door James placed his hand on her shoulder. On any other day she would have crushed him. She was tiered and her hands were still sore.

"Please don't go. I apologize for showing you that picture." As Fred turned around James could see the pain in her eyes. "I only wanted to help."

"I know. I just wish people would accept the fact the Fred is gone." Walking over to the desk she bent down and picked the photo back up. "You know, I have clear memories of them. I care for them. I can almost smell my mothers cooking. But they aren't my parents I don't have the right to care about them or to even know their names. Why do I know who they are? Why do I have to live every day with the pain of having her memories? Is this some sort of punishment from god? Is my hell and eternal suffering to live with an intimate knowledge of the woman whose life I ruined?" She sat down in one of his chairs and wept.

Walking over to her he crouched down and placed a hand on her arm. "Don't worry everything is going to be ok. You are a human being now and I know that this is going to be hard for you to accept but you have to keep on living life. I want you to take the rest of the day and in the morning I am going to have Buffy introduce you to some of her girls. More than anything on heaven and earth you need to spend some time just being a girl."


	9. Paintings

A/N: here you go Buffy fans. I sat down and reread my story so far. I realized that this story needed to pick out the pace a little so here you go guys. Please R&R.

Chapter 9: Paintings

Buffy summers strolled trough the halls of the new watchers council building. Things had been very quite for several days now. Buffy wondered if the vamps in Cleveland were afraid of the council's presence. As strange as it sounded Buffy missed the action. She had half a mind to go on patrol with the girls tonight. She knew she couldn't though the younger girls that couldn't patrol needed her. She walked into one of the rec. rooms and found Illyria sitting with a few of the girls on the floor finger painting. It was a comical sight to see the half demon with red and yellow paint all over her fingers and little splotch marks on her face. In a way Buffy had adopted her as well. Though she had all of Winifred's memories she did not understand what it was to be human. Buffy felt sorry for her she wanted desperately to help her. One of the girls saw Buffy and waved her over to them. Buffy could not help but smile. As she got closer she could see that Illyria had painted a house and three little stick people. Buffy crouched down besides her examining the paintings as well. Thankfully the floors were made of linoleum and not carpet because the girls had paint everywhere.

"Why is it that you all like painting on the floor so much." it was a stupid question because she knew kids had a natural penchant for wanting to be close to the ground. She thought to herself that it must have something to do with babies spending so much time on the floor before they learn to walk.

The girls all looked up at her and the slayers one by one hugged and kissed her neck. Sitting down between Illyria and a little blonde girl named Cherish she looked closer at Illyria's painting.

"Having fun Illyria?" Buffy said rubbing Cherish's back. Cherish leaned her head against Buffy's shoulders and continued painting with one hand.

"Yeah, I've never done this before." Illyria smiled and wiped paint from her cheek with the back for her hand.

"Well what is this supposed to be a picture of?" Illyria rolled her eyes 'it's my family' she said continuing to paint a sun in the sky.

Looking around she noticed that all of the girls were painting the same thing. There were a few differences of course but they each had painted three stick figures and a house. She was crushed she understood that they must all be painting the parents they had had before coming to the council. In some levels she was jealous. Illyria must be drawing Fred's family.

Placing her chin on the top of Cherish's head she looked down at her painting and pointed to a sick figure with long hair and something long in its hand. "Who is this hon?"

Cherish looked up at her and gave her a big smile. "That's you mommy."

Buffy almost cried when she realized the picture of her must be holding a stake. "That's beautiful sweetheart and who is this?"

Buffy pointed to another stick figure she could not tell what it was supposed to be. "That's supposed to be daddy put I don't know what he looks like."

Buffy's heart fell. It had to be hard on these girls to not have a dad. Illyria held up her picture for Buffy to see. "Do you want to see mine?"

Buffy smiled and took the painting. Placing it in Cherish's lap she examined the three stick figures. The one in the middle was shorter than the other two and had faint little blue lines overtop of the arms and face. To the right of what she could only guess was supposed to be a little Illyria was a taller stick figure with yellow hair and a blue jacket. On the other side was a tall figure with a long black coat and black hair. "Who are they supposed to be Illyria?"

Her smile became even brighter as she pointed to the one with long hair "that is you mommy." and pointing to the other figure "and that is daddy."

Buffy smiled, these girls must be rubbing off on her. "And who is daddy?" she asked kidding more than really asking.

"That's Angel." Illyria's eyes were full of joy. She seemed to think that they really were her family. Buffy couldn't help but think that she may be more right than not. Angel had been there for her more than anyone else.

Buffy sat and watched them paint for nearly a half an hour. She wouldn't admit it but she wished Angel would get off his ass and be the father her girls needed.

After the girls were done she sent the slayers off to bed and walked back to the suite floor with Illyria. Illyria had taken James advice a little seriously. She had gone to the mall with Dawn the day before and bought several bright pastel coloured shirts and shorts. It was a strange sight to see a twenty something woman wearing matching 'Hello Kitty' shorts and shirt. The look was thrown off even more by the predominance of her arteries on her skin. She had spent all of her time with the younger slayers. Not that Buffy minded in fact she would rather see her like this than the aggressive person she used to be. She seemed perfectly innocent like this.

Turning a bend they were almost run over bye Giles.

"Hey Giles what's the rush?" Buffy said taking in his dishevelled appearance.

"There is a group of vampires on the street outside of the building. And all of the able slayers are on patrol." Giles struggled to catch his breath. "James said he would take care of them but I doubt he can take them on is own. And there is no one else here Angel and the rest are out with the slayers."

Buffy sent a glance Illyria's way just before running off to the elevator. At the same time Illyria ran to James office to locate his weapons.

By the time Buffy reached the front of the building James was already outside. Walking outside Buffy counted fifteen vamps all wearing leather and carrying chains or clubs. James simply smiled at them and told them to leave. He was completely unarmed unless he was carrying something in his trench coat that Buffy could not see. He seemed so confidant though. She couldn't figure it out. Illyria rushed out of the building carrying a long katana in a black scabbard. Jogging up to James' left side she handed him the sword. Calmly James grabbed the hilt of the sword with his white gloved hand.

"I'm sure we can come to a peaceful solution to what ever your problem with us is." James said. Buffy could not figure this man out he seemed to not be afraid of the vamps at all.

A vampire with a large scar on his face simply spit him in the eye. Slowly wiping the spittle from his face James took off his gloves and stowed them in his inside coat pocket. Taking off his coat he handed it to Illyria. Buffy looked over at her and she seemed to be enjoying something because she had a large grin on her face. Turning to the two women James gestured for them to step back.

"I wouldn't want you to get blood and ash on your clothing ladies." once they had taken a few steps back James focused his attention back on the vamps. "Now I hope you all realise that you have brought this upon yourselves."

Drawing his katana out of its sheath with his right hand James flipped the scabbard around in his left hand like he planned on using it as a club. Buffy noticed that the blade of the sword looked like it was only half there. Upon closer inspection she realised that the sword was being licked by shadow like fire. With out making any noise James charged at the vamps and began cutting them down. With a quick bop to the head by the scabbard James turned and sliced the lead vamps head clean off of his shoulders. One by one he turned and twisted dusting vamps before they knew what was going on. It only took thirty seconds for him to dust all fifteen of them. Sheathing his sword James walked back to the two girls and straightened out his black button up shirt. "Well they weren't as menacing as they looked were they." Buffy felt like her jaw was dragging the ground.

"How they hell did you do that." she said looking him over. "You dusted them without using wood."

James simply smiled and walked back into the building with Illyria and Buffy hot on his heels.


	10. The Thruth About Bats and Dogs

Disclaimer: all characters are brain children of Joss Whedon, not me.

A/N: totally apologize for not posting this along time ago. I have been caught up in some other things. Any way dropped some of my other stories so I should be able to update this fairly regularly.

The True About Bats and Dogs

Buffy and Ilyria followed James back into the Watchers building. The night had been full of strange contradictions. Buffy had never seen a blade that could dust vampires. Even the scythe's blade could not accomplish such a feet. James ran up the stairs until he reached on of the practice gyms. He walked up to a metal weapons cabinet and produced the key. Buffy had been holding her tongue up ti know but she simply couldn't figure out what he was doing.

"What happened out there?" she asked stepping up to behind him.

"I told you all that I am not exactly human. Well there is your proof." He said placing the key in the cabinet lock.

"Your moves were impressive but I was referring to the sword." She said watching the side of his face intently.

"It is a shadow blade, a sword made from hell metal. Long ago a Shinto monk climbed the side of mount Fuji where the largest and oldest hell mouth is located there he found metals that had been left over from an ancient battle between heaven and hell." James turned and looked into Buffy's eyes. "The monk found that when weapons were made from the metal they had the ability to vanquish demons. You see the blades them selves are direct conduits of hell fire. That is why the sword killed those vampire." James returned his gaze to the cabinet and swung the doors open. The inside of the cabinet was full of gun racks. Each rack had twenty jet black pistols. "I had these brought over before I left England." He pulled out one of the guns and held it out to Buffy. "These weapons are designed to look like an M9 Baretta. They function much the same as a M9 however they have very little feedback. This is due to the fact that they don't fire bullets however what they do fire is much more effective against our specialty."

"And what do they fire?" Buffy asked looking at the gun suspiciously.

"Ah yes, each clip carries twenty rounds of ultraviolet radiation in plasmatic form. That is to say that each round is actually a hardened form of pure sun light." He said and his eyes seemed to glow.

"How is that possible." Buffy asked a dumbfounded look on her face.

"It's easy enough to produce ultraviolet radiation." James unlatched the clip of the gun and showed her the bullet on top. It looked like paint pellet with green gunk instead of paint. It had a greenish purple tint and reminded Buffy of a goo that kids used to play with back in the nineties.

"So this stuff isn't dangerous to us is it?" Buffy wondered

"Not at all. There are various other types of filling for the bullet casings but I have a feeling we are going to get more call for the UV rounds." He placed the gun back on the rack and pulled out a pair of slightly larger pistols. "These are both modified P.819's they are a variation on the P.9 used by the British secret service. They have been equipped with a burst fire attachment to the front of the weapon. I also had LED lamps and laser targeting systems molded to fit the weapons." he handed the two guns to Buffy who hefted the weapons in her hands.

They didn't feel near as heavy as she would have guessed and the hand grips seemed to fit her hands perfectly. "These are nice, are they coming out of my salary?" She said jokingly.

"Parish the thought. Think of them as gifts from a proud watcher." James smiled and handed her two wooden boxes and a set of kevlar guns belts. "You are forging the way to a new era of vampire slaying."

Buffy blushed she felt like a kid on Christmas morning. Something about being the slayer mad her giddy as a school girl whenever she was given new weapons. "Thanks a lot, does this mean I get to go outside now."

James laughed. "I am going to have Xander start training the girls on the M9 tomorrow and you can take the first squad of slayers out this weekend."

Buffy smiled and walked out of the room. She was quite content, she had new weapons to tryout and she got to go slay some vamps. She had to admit that she liked the fact that she didn't go out on patrol every night but she felt restless not doing anything at all.

With the next dawn came the hassle of a days lectures. Willow had thought she would love getting to teach and she did love it she simply hated the time it took to prepare the lessons which her students never seemed as interested in as she did. Today was different though she was combining her anatomy classes with Oz's cultural classes. They had stayed up till the wee hours of the morning finalizing there lesson plans for the day. Willow walked into the lecture hall that Oz used as his class room she found the room packed with students. There had to be a hundred seats in the place and everyone of them was full. There were even some girls standing up in the back. Willow blushed she was lucky if she got all of her roster to show up to every class. Willow walked to the teachers desk in front of a large projection screen. She opened up one of the doors on the desk and inserted a thumb drive into the computer housed inside. Turning around she addressed the class.

"Hello every one today we are going to be talking about werewolf physiology and how it relates to the social structure of modern day covens." Willow turned to her first slide which showed a picture of a big fury beast that looked more man than wolf. "This is a picture from a popular fairy tale. Now werewolves do not look like this. There are some demons that take on a human appearance but they are not true lycenthrope. A true lycen or werewolf is a human that has been bitten by another werewolf and infected with a disease that causes the victim to change on a genetic level. They literally become wolves. Now there are some covens that perform crude rituals to keep a human victim from crossing over completely these are called pets and have through long torturous sessions lost all of their sanity. Now because they aren't fully werewolves pets have a high tolerance to silver which is why covens like having them around. Now I warn you if you are ever around half-breeds such as these you run and you run fast." Willow changed her slide to a picture of a wolf. "This is a real werewolf. Nothing more nothing less." A hand shot up in the middle of the room. "Yes do you have a question?"

"What about Professor Oz? Isn't he a werewolf?" The girl asked.

"Yes Oz is a werewolf." Willow responded. "Are there any more questions before we move on?" A young girl sitting up front raised her hand. "Yes Marsha."

"If werewolves become complete wolves then how come we never see them like that.?" She asked

"Thank you, that was going to be one of my next points. We normally see werewolves at the height of there blood rage. Can anyone tell me when that is." Again Marsha raised her hand.

"Its the full moon isn't it." The young girl stated

"Quite right, werewolves are driven by the same thirst for blood vampires are the only difference is that since werewolves are essentially just wolves they find there blood by hunting small game. The only time you see them attacking humans Is if they have tried to live among us and gotten caught at the full moon without having feed the whole month. They end up so driven by thirst that they cannot wait to finish the transformation before feeding." A girl in the back raised her hand. "Yes you had a question."

"Where is the professor?" She said as numerous others started looking around the room.

"He woke up late this morning had had needed to go hunting before coming to class." Once she said this half the class shuddered visibly. Just then a scratching sound came form the door and Angel came in followed by what looked like a black and white husky. The dog carried a small rabbit in its jaws and walked up to willow before setting the dead animal on the floor and laying down at her feet. The dog then began to tear at the rabbit starting with it front legs. Moaning elected from around the room as the dog ate.

"Guess that rabbit wasn't very lucky was he." Angel said with a light chuckle.

"Guess not." Willow said petting the dog behind the ears. "I would like to introduce you all to Oz."

"That's the professor." One of the girls said.

"Yes he is a north Siberian husky." Willow said with a bit of pride. She bent low and pointed to the rabbit and the office that adjoined the classroom. Making a audible whimper he carried the rabbit into his office. Several of the students sighed in endearment. "Now where were we? Ah yes Angel could you help me for a moment."

"Sure what can I do?" He asked shoving his hands in his pockets.

"Well I was just lecturing on the difference between vampires and werewolves." She said indicating her new slide which showed a pictures of a bat and wolf.

"Lets see, vampires and werewolves aren't that much different than each other. Both species started the same. Long ago shortly after the death of Christ there was a famous demon who prayed upon the people of eastern Europe. He took on the guise of a bat and wolf to make his victims fear him before they died. One day a tribe was ransacked by a rival village the tribal leader Vlad Dracul fled through the woods to get help for his people. As he ran he stumbled upon the demons hunting path and begged the demon to give him the power to save his people. The demon agreed but only on the condition that Vlad give up his humanity. And thus the vampire was born. Dracula become the father of all vampires. He used his blood to make half vampire servants to do his bedding while at the same time fathered the full blooded vampires that made up the coven hierarchy. Werewolves are much the same, the first werewolf was a Romanian solider who became severely wounded in battle and tried to make it up the mountains so he could die in peace and enter Valhalla however the demon became aware of him and tricked him into thinking he was the Norse spirit of the wind. He told the young man that if he pledged his allegiance he would make him a herald of the gods and allow him to live forever on earth. Unlike vampires, werewolves are full blooded whether they were bitten or born. However the process is long and most werewolves don't even know the full extent of their transformation." Angel stopped speaking and looked over at willow. "That good enough?"

"That's great we will finish this lecture tomorrow have a good day." Willow said which was followed bye the sound of chairs squeaking across the floor.

"Oh one last thing girls." Angel said and everyone stopped in there tracks as he scanned the whole of the room. "While I'm sure this surge in attendance is very encouraging to your professor please stick to your own schedules." With that he turned and left.

Willow walked into the office and found Oz sprawled out on a pillow. She chuckled, he seemed to be much more comfortable these days. She would often see him trotting around the botanical garden located behind the building. He would chase butterflies and hunt for toads. James had purchased a collar and tags for him to keep him out of trouble when he wondered around the city. Willow didn't worry about him if he got run over by a car he would simply heal and unless he came across a car with silver rims he was pretty safe. As willow watched him he rolled over exposing his stomach and started to pant. Laughing willow bent down and rubbed his belly, as she did he closed his eyes and had a look on his muzzle that had to be pure enjoyment. He followed willow around all day and didn't even change back into a human to eat. They walked into the staff lounge around six o'clock and found everyone there but Andrew.

"Andrew still tending to the girls supper?" Willow asked before sitting down in one of the large armchairs.

"Yeah, I think we're running him ragged down in that kitchen." Came Buffy's response.

"God don't you have a leash for this beast." Spike said recoiling from a lap on the face. As soon as he had said it Oz began growling bearing his teeth. "Ah, he's going rabid."

"You shouldn't have said the "L" word." Willow said shaking a finger at Oz who whimpered and laid his head on her lap. "Those puppy dog eyes won't get you everywhere." She said giving Oz an equally pathetic look.

"Does anyone else feel like she's gone of the deep end." Piped in Xander. Everyone in the room cracked up laughing even willow.

"Oh she went over a long time ago." Buffy said still laughing.

James came into the room and everyone went silent. "Well I certainly seem to make an impression. Don't I." He said clearing his throat. "Well I know it hasn't been long since we all came together and I am sure that some of you are not quite settled in yet but I'm afraid I have news that some of you might not like." He said looking over at Xander. "I received a telephone call from England this morning. They are sending us more slayers and by more I mean around two hundred." There was a light whistle from around the room. "They have also sent us a new teacher to help with our fifteen or so elementary aged students. She arrived this afternoon." He cleared his throat again and stepped aside as a girl wearing a long black traveling cloak entered the room. She slowly removed the cloak and instantly all the air left the room. The young girl had shoulder length blond hair and upon seeing her Xander fainted.

She blushed and giggled. "Hi guys it's been awhile."


	11. Tears of Love

Disclaimer: Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel are properties of Joss Whedon.

A/N: Hello here is the next chapter I hope you all enjoy.

Tears of Love

Loud bangs could be heard from the gymnasium as Xander made his way to his office. Xander was thoroughly convinced that the previous night was a dream. His conviction was planted in the fact that he had woken up in his own bed. Xander shoved a doughnut in his mouth and grabbed his clipboard from his desk before heading into the gym. Xander had taken one of the larger sparring rooms and set-up a firing range for crossbows. He had not however intended it to be used to practice the use of firearms. Xander nearly dropped the doughnut from his mouth when he saw Buffy standing in a marksman's position unloading a semiautomatic hand gun into his freshly hung targets. Buffy was tearing the target the pieces but not making a single shot in the center. A strange yet familiar voice came form Buffy's side.

"Here let me show you." Said a blonde girl who took Buffy's gun from her hand. "There is no way that your going to hit the target dead on with a hand gun except point blank range. She hefted the gun and aimed, her shot went right through the center of the target. "You see you have to now that the kick back is going jerk the gun up about thirty degrees. With that knowledge you should aim the gun about thirty degrees downward of your target to hit it right in the center." She handed Buffy back the gun as Buffy reassumed the position.

This time Buffy aimed at about thirty degrees south of her target and much to her surprise she hit the target in almost the exact same spot as her friend. "Wow thanks." Buffy said releasing the clip and pulling off her head set. She turned and noticed Xander standing there with cherry filling all over his mouth and shirt and splattered doughnut on the ground. "Um Xander, are you ok?" She asked.

Xander didn't say anything he just stood rooted to the spot and his mouth gaping open. The blonde looked at him and laughed. "Xander you might want to clean that up." She said pulling the target of the pulley that had brought it back to them.

"Anya." Was all he could say before crumpling up in a heap. The two girls ran up to him and tried to lift him up on his feet.

Buffy checked his pulse. "He must have fainted." she said setting him down in a chair.

"This is all my fault." Anya said feeling Xander's forehead.

"Come on don't blame yourself. You sacrificed your life to save everyone in this building. Xander knows that he wouldn't speak to anyone for weeks after you died. I'm sure that all of this excitement has been a little much for him." Buffy smiled at her half-demon friend.

"Yeah I guess your right." Anya said a smile spreading across her face.

"Come on we'll put him in his office and let him rest for a minute. I don't think he has a class for a few hours." Buffy said leading her friend out of the gym.

The kitchen was full of slayers eating third or fourth helping of breakfast. Andrew rushed around trying to replace the pans fast enough to satisfy the slayers appetite. He desperately needed help, thankfully for him he had someone coming for an interview that day. Andrew walked back out into the fray of the dinning hall to put a pan full of pancakes onto the serving line. As soon as he had the pan was half empty as slayers half ate while they stood in line. Andrew threw in the towel for the day and began preparing what he was going to serve for lunch. An hour later he heard a knock on the kitchen door. A twenty two year old girl walked in she looked like she belonged on TV. She had perfect lightly tanned clear skin and long brown hair. Her eyes were brown with a hint of green. Andrew felt awkward with such a lovely young girl in his kitchen. It was several seconds before he though to speak.

"So are you here for the assistant's position?" Andrew said a slight blush in his face.

"Yes well, the man I spoke to on the phone said that the open position was for an assistant house mother." She said with an awkward smile.

"That's right, what are your qualifications?" Andrew said trying to sound professional.

"I have an Associate in Teacher Education with a dual major in Theology. I graduated from the Anglican School of Theology in Chicago and I love kids." She said her smile spreading and becoming much warmer. "I was refereed here by one of my professors he said the headmaster was a friend of his and I jumped at the chance to work in an Anglican private school. You don't see many of them around. Hence why I had to come all the way to Ohio to find a job. But it doesn't bother me the city is similar to Chicago enough that I should manage." She looked around the kitchen and shook her head. "Can I ask you a question?" She wondered looking over at Andrew. "Why is it that the house mother in a place this big is doing all of the cooking?"

"There are several good reasons for that. The most important I think is that I wanted to do it. I regret that decision slightly now but still. The headmaster said the reason he needed me to do it was because of security." Andrew said with a wink. "The Ministry of Faith in England won't let just anybody work here you know. You see this is English soil so no American politician or law enforcer has any jurisdiction here. This is to maintain complete secrecy for the reason the girls are here at this school." Andrew put a large steel pot over a radiant heat element built onto a low counter. "Oh forgive my manners my name is Andrew." He said holding out his hand.

"Rachel Dawson." She said shaking his hand. "So what is the real reason these girls are here?" She asked not sure she wanted to know.

"They are vampire slayers Miss Dawson." Andrew said pouring water into the pot and adding pasta.

"Vampire slayers?" She laughed she couldn't help it the idea was just so absurd.

"Yes that's right." Andrew walked over to the intercom and pressed the send button. "James this is Andrew could you send the five year old class down here to help me out."

_"You've sure got a soft spot for those girls don't you?"_ Came a British voice that Rachel recognized as the headmaster. _"All right I'll have Anya bring them down in just a moment."_

Andrew turned to Rachel and smiled. "Your hired the first task you need tackle is put on an apron and help the five year olds when they come in. The other side of the kitchen is where the dish washer is. I want you to help them clean all of the dishes from this morning and put them back on the serving lines. Then help them to clean up the dinning hall and prepare it for lunch." Andrew said turning toward the back of the kitchen. "Oh one more thing, don't underestimate those girls."

Rachel was left all by her self. She had just come in for a preliminary interview and now she was on the job how odd. She supposed he was trying to pull one over on her so she bit. She grabbed an apron form the wall and waited. A few minutes later seven or eight five year-olds came crashing through the door followed by a blonde girl a little bit older than her.

The blond waved. "Hey I'm Anya."

"I'm Rachel the new assistant house mother." She said waving.

One of the girls turned to Anya with a confused look. "I already have a mom Miss Anya."

Rachel giggled the girls were all adorable she saw a mixed look of frustration and understanding on Anya's face.

"Don't worry sweet pea Rachel is just a teacher like me." Anya said trying to comfort the child.

Rachel took the silence as a good time to start. She got down on the girls level so she could look into their eyes. "So what do you guys say I show you the dish washing room?" All of the girls squealed in anticipation. Rachel lead them to the other side of the kitchen were the large conveyor belt driven dish washing system was located. The mess of steel and steam was a complete mystery to her. She realized that Andrew must have wanted to see how well she thought on her feet. "Ok first off al I need you all to carry over all of the dishes from the window over there and put them into the sink here against the wall." She said indicating the large sink next to her. The girls all ran over to the draining ledge that connected to the dinning hall. Several of the girls started working as a team; one girl would hold the dishes as the other stacked them into her arms. Rachel walked up to one of the girls with a confused look on her face. "Honey why don't you carry a smaller stack those lo ok to heavy for you to carry."

The girl was holding at pile of plates two feet high. "No I can get it." She said walking over to the sink and setting them down.

Rachel was utterly confused, then she saw one of the girls carry one of Andrews four foot steel cauldrons that she had seen him struggle carrying up over her head. She turned her head to see Anya laughing at the look on her face.

"You've never met slayers before have you?" Anya asked.

Rachel looked at her dumbfounded. "Slayers? So Andrew was right these girls are."

"Vampire slayers, yes." Anya said finishing her sentence.

"I think I'm going to faint." Rachel said watching the little Herculean girls rinsing off dishes and carrying heavy plates and serving pans around.

"Please don't, I've already had to carry one unconscious body too many today." Anya replied watching to make sure the girls didn't drop anything.

Rachel laughed it was the only thing she could think of to do. An hour later everything was done and the dinning hall looked like it would shine. Anya excused herself and led the girls back to their class room. Rachel sat down at one of the tables in the dinning hall and waited. She been their long when Andrew came walking into the room with a tall man following him. Andrew came up to her and smiled.

"So how did you hold up with those girls running around the kitchen?" Andrew asked

"Ok I guess all things considered." She said eyeing the man next him.

"This is Angel he's the vice-headmaster." Andrew said indicating the tall man.

"So you must be Rachel." Angel said in a n almost intoxicating Irish accent.

"Yes sir, pleased to meet you." She said with a slight bow.

Angel turned to leave and stopped before he got to the door. "Oh Andrew Giles wanted to know when we were meeting to play dungeons and dragons this week."

"Tonight at my place about seven." Andrew called after him.

Rachel lost it as soon as Angel had left. "You guys play DnD?"

"Yeah what's wrong with that?" Andrew said defensively.

"Nothing at all it just seems weird that you guys seem to live that kind of stuff every day and then you go and pretend to be what you already are." She said shaking her head. "So what are plans for lunch?" She said slapping him on the arm. "I still have to get all my stuff from the hotel and get situated."

"Don't worry about that one of our teachers Robin took care of that already. All of your stuff is in the apartment between mine and Buffy's."

"Who's Buffy?" She asked following him into the kitchen.

"Oh she is the chosen." Andrew said draining his large pot of pasta.

"The chosen?" Rachel asked incredulously.

"That means that she is the end all be all of slayers. She has the power of the scythe which is this magical weapon forged back when the slayer tradition began." He said tasting the pot of sauce. "She is also the last according to slayer myth."

"Why is that?" She wondered as she began using large tongs to take the pasta out of the pot.

"Within her lifetime she will lead a massive army of slayers against the hounds of hell on the day of judgment." He said throwing sage into the pot of sauce.

"So you're saying that within my lifetime I am going to see the last days of earth and since I work here probably have front row seats." She said laughing to keep herself from having a nervous breakdown.

"Not necessarily, Buffy may live to be a hundred and fifty for all we know. We have been averting Armageddon for years. Seemed like a monthly occurrence back in Sunnydale." Andrew said

"Sunnydale isn't that the town that got buried during a massive earthquake?" She asked as she set up numerous serving pans full of pasta. "Do we really need all of this pasta?"

"It was hardly an earthquake it was a bomb of sorts. We closed the Hellmouth which is sort of like a gate to hell and the land on top of it was buried in the crater. And you obviously haven't seen a slayer eat if you think those six pans will be enough." He said eyeing the pans she had just covered.

Lunch went rather routinely and Andrew loved having an extra pair of hands. Much to Rachel's surprise they went through sixteen pans of pasta before the bell to begin afternoon classes rang. Rachel helped Andrew to clean up and thirty minutes later they called it a day. Andrew showed her to her apartment; it had its own kitchen as well as a living room with dining table and a large bedroom with adjoining bath room. As far as she was concerned it was perfect. Her suit cases were both sitting on top of her bed. After she changed out of the cloths she had been wearing all day she walked over to Buffy's apartment right next door once she knocked Buffy answered the door.

"Hey you must be the new girl. How can I help you?" Buffy asked a warm smile on her face.

"Just wanted to say hi and introduce myself." Rachel said.

"Well come on in I was just teaching Illyria how to paint by numbers." Buffy said shutting the door behind Rachel.

"Is Illyria your daughter?" She asked taking in the size of the apartment. The place was huge it looked more like the inside of a single floor home rather than an apartment.

"Not by birth but she might as well be." Buffy said walking into her kitchen. There was a girl about Rachel's age with light blue veins visible in the edge of her face sitting at the table with a paint brush in one hand and a paint by numbers picture of Winnie the Pooh on the table. She looked up at Rachel and smiled. "Illyria this is Rachel she is going to be living right next to us from now on."

"Hi Rachel." Illyria said waving her empty hand.

"Hi Illyria, do you like Winnie the Pooh?" She said pointing to the picture.

Illyria nodded her head. "I watch it every morning." She said.

The front door opened and Angel walked into the kitchen. "Hey Buffy." he said kind of monotone.

"Hello Angelus." Was Buffy's only response.

Illyria however jumped up and hugged him. "Hey daddy, do you want to go to the park a saw this cool swing set there the other day."

"Sure, what do you think Buffy?" Angel asked looking over at the blonde.

"I don't mind just put away all of your stuff before you leave ok Illyria." Buffy said looking at the girl.

"Ok mommy." she said gathering up all of her stuff and following angel to her room.

"Wow there is sexual tension between you and him thick as cement." Rachel said after the two had gone.

"Tell me about it." Buffy said plopping down at the table.

"Well give me the dime novel explanation." Rachel said sitting down next to her.

"Well for starters he's a vampire." She said rubbing her temples.

"A vampire is a co-head at a school for vampire slayers?" Rachel asked mystified.

"Yeah well Angel's different. He has been forgiven. He spent almost a hundred years in a church trying to atone for his sins through prayer." Buffy said grabbing a cookie from the package Illyria had left there.

"Prayer can only get you so far. You have to actually make up for what you do with action." Rachel said grabbing a cookie as well.

"Yeah he finally figured that out about nine years ago. He found me, the newest slayer at the time and decided to follow me and protect me. Didn't work that well within a year I died fighting his old boss. I came back fairly quickly seems god gave me this innate ability to defy death. So he blamed himself and I didn't see him for nearly four months after that. Of course I didn't really want to see him either I had gone through a lot and spent that time training as hard as I could to make sure that would never happen again. Then when he came back and we started dating again he turned evil again and it was all my fault well it was partially my fault you see this gypsy had cursed him and said that if he ever found true happiness that he would revert back to the way he was. Well he found out about a year ago that it was all psychological his subconscious mind had told him that he didn't deserve to be human so he started to eliminate all of the people he cared about mainly being my friends. He killed my watcher Giles girlfriend Jenny and then he tortured Giles. So I had to kill him so I could stop this portal from opening that would give him power over demons. So then I ran away and lived on the east cost of a while. I couldn't get over the fact that this spell a friend of mine had come up with had worked and he returned to normal right when I sent him into the portal he had opened. I can still remember the look on his face as I did it. But he hadn't died I think part of it was because he wasn't supposed to die yet he needed to be alive so he could finally make the right decision. Well when he came back we spent almost a year trying to work out his demons we would train together and do Ti Chi. Well at the end of that year he decided that my life would be better with out him so he took off for Los Angeles. He started an investigation agency and did that for five years until coming to the realization that he had spent five years going through hell alone when he could have spent it with me. So he came back again. Apparently though he stayed in contact with my friend Willow and when he learned about all of the stuff we had gone through about a year and a half ago she got this old nemesis of mine out of jail and gave her a chance by sending her to Sunnydale to help us. I'm still not convinced that it was a good idea though. She was always a loose cannon. She even turned all the potential slayers we had gathered to fight this huge battle against me and they made me leave my own house. I don't know it was a weird time I think he sent her because he didn't want me to get killed again he had to deal with the fact the he had been gone when I died the second time to save my sister Dawn. I don't know I know he has been in love with me for a long time I just wish he would walk up to me and say it." Buffy was in tears and sobbed uncontrollably. Rachel patted her on the shoulder.

"Yeah men can be totally clue less sometimes." Rachel said. She turned her head when she heard one of the floor boards creak. It was Angel.

"I've got it room here." He said as he sat down in the chair next to Buffy.

Rachel wasn't sure how long he stayed because she could hear Buffy sobbing for hours. She made her way down the hall to Andrews's room. When he answered she saw several people inside all hovering around the kitchen table.

"Hey Rachel come on in." He said motioning her forward. "We were just about to get started."

She didn't recognize anyone in the room except for Anya and the headmaster who seemed to be trying make heads or tails of Andrews hand drawn map.

"Hey guys this is Rachel she just started here this morning." Andrew said introducing her.

"Ah fresh meat." Said a black haired man sitting next to Anya. "Oww what did you do that for." He said looking at Anya and shaking a reddening hand in the air.

"Rachel this dumb lug is Xander." Anya said pointing to the man now emphatically blowing on his hand.

"Names Giles,." Said an English man sitting at the table between Anya and the headmaster Mr. Davies.

"So you're Giles." Rachel said remembering Buffy's story. "Buffy and I were just talking about you."

"So you met Buffy already that's good." He said cleaning his glasses. The two love birds in front of you are Dawn and Spike. Dawn is Buffy's sister."

"Yes she had mentioned you." Rachel said shaking Dawns hand.

"More than likely it had something to do with her death." Dawn said lighting a cigarette.

"How did you guess?" Rachel said thinking it an odd thing to bring up.

"Well seeing as I heard her crying through the front door when I walked by I figured you too were talking about either that or angel."

"Actually." Rachel said sitting down next to her. "We were talking about both. That was until Angel showed up now I don't care to think about what they could be doing right know."

Every own laughed but no one harder then Dawn. "So do you think he heard what you guys were talking about?" She said

"I think he heard all of it. He seemed to only make a noise because he wanted me to know he was there." Rachel said pulling out a piece of paper from her pocket and handing it to Andrew. "Can I use this?"

Andrews's eyes flew open at the professionally written character. "Wow didn't know you played."

"My dad used to write the books so I got hooked pretty early." Rachel responded

"We started playing back in Sunnydale during that long stint where we were fighting The First." Giles said.

"But that was only because we couldn't get out of the bloody house." Spike said taking off his coat exposing a Billy Idle sleeveless T-shirt.

"Well I don't seem to get the point of all this. You are playing as mythological creatures that are fighting real life monsters. Why bother when you could all go out on patrol and actually fight them." The headmaster said.

"Because this way I don't lose an eye." Xander said pointing to his own.

"Jolly good point." James said setting down the map. Well I am going to go do some evening sparring with Faith before I turn in have nice night." James said getting up from the table.

"Wait faith is here as in the bitch with an attitude." Rachel said bewildered.

"Yes well you have been talking to Buffy haven't you." James said before excusing himself.

Xander leaned over and smiled. "Just watch you don't say anything like that around Robin he might just go off on you."

"I'll try to keep that in mind." She said as Andrew began the game. It had certainly been a long day and she couldn't help but wonder what the next day would be like.


	12. Guns and Poetry

Disclaimer: all characters are owned by Joss Whedon

A/N: here's the latest chapter I apologize for a lack of Buffy/Angel but this is were I wanted to go/ I promise to deliver on the Angel romance though.

Guns and Poetry

The smell of smoke and alcohol choked up the room as Dawn woke up. She sat up in bed and coughed, this had to stop she was fed up with doing what ever she wanted just because she could. As she got out of bed Spike didn't even budge. Dawn traipsed around the room throwing away every bottle of booze she could find and threw away every cigarette in the place. She rummaged through Spikes pockets and coat getting rid of all his tobacco. Dawn went into her bathroom and got ready for her Latin class. Looked at her closet and frowned. Who could she possibly thought that wearing all that leather was cool. She threw on a white blouse and black pants grabbed her leather jacket and headed out the door. Dawn walked into her classroom and turned on the lights. She liked the classes they had been provided. Her class room would seat thirty people and was arranged in levels. There were three rows of desks all with computer hookups and microphones. The room was ideal for teaching language.

Dawn sat her jacket down on her desk and booted up her computer. She had just finished bringing up her slide when her students came filling in.

"Jeez Miss Summers did you and Spike break up or something." Came the voice of a student.

"No we did not breakup I just woke up this morning and realized that there is more to life than menial pleasure." Dawn said pulling up her first slide. "Know since Jessica here was kind enough to recognize my change in demeanor then perhaps she can tell us what the symbol on the board represents." The class fell silent and all yes went to Jessica.

"Um isn't that the Greek symbol Alpha." Jessica said biting at the end of her pen.

"That's correct now everyone why would I write a Greek symbol on the board, specifically this symbol?" Dawn said pacing in front of her class. A hand popped up from the front row. "Yes Monica." Dawn said pointing to the girl.

"Alpha stands for the beginning, which correlates with the first letter of the Latin alphabet eI which also means the beginning." She said lowering her hand.

"Very good, now can any of you tell me why these two languages are so similar?" Dawn asked leaning against her desk.

"Because both the Greeks and the early Italians understood that the first letter of the alphabet represented the beginning of rational thought." Jessica said without raising her hand.

"Ok that's good not were I was going but still good. Ok now saying the word Nero under one context meant the letter or the beginning of the alphabet however saying the word in another context could mean the beginning of time or the beginning of the month." Dawn said motioning to her next slide. "What I want you all to understand is that Latin is more than symbols to be translated. You all need to understand context of the language and all of its nuances to be able to properly translate a text simply knowing the alternate forms of the word eI could distinguish between translating text as saying a demons name or decoding the cycle of a ritual." Dawn turned off her screen and turned to the class. Now I want you all to write six hundred words on the importance of lingual sub context and the alternate meanings of eI."

All of her students picked up their things and began filing out of class. A commotion arose at the door as the girls tried to avoid a brooding Spike.

"Hey babe, you seem pissed about something." Dawn said trying to prod him into an argument.

"Yeah well I was until I saw you in that get-up. You make a hot teacher you know that Bit." Spike said walking into the classroom.

"Yes well I got over the whole Billy Idol look. You do know that you aren't a bad boy vampire anymore don't you." Dawn said setting out the material for her Symarian class.

"Yeah I do and hooking up with you was probably the best thing I've done since I was forgiven." Spike said taking off his leather coat. "I just don't know how to act anymore. I keep pushing the boundaries because I'm afraid of getting comfortable."

"You know I called the keeper of your estate the other day." Dawn said resting her arms against her desk.

"Really is that why you're sticking around. You hoping to get some of my mum's money." Spike said with a smile.

"Not at all babe, but apparently your mom didn't die when you thought she did." Dawn said waiting for the news to sink in. "She organized a coven in London but that's not important the important thing is that she married a man working for the government who knew that she was a vampire. I think she was trying to get a foot hold in some serious contacts to keep heat off of her coven. She was killed though slayed by her husband. So her husband was left in charge of her estate and he recently passed away leaving everything to you."

"Who did he know I was still alive?" Spike said his head spinning.

"His granddaughter told me that he had spent most of his life tracking you down until a couple of years ago a friend of his in the Presidium told him that you had allied with the slayer. He decided that because you reconciled yourself that you deserved to inherit what should have been yours anyway." Dawn said picking up her purse from the desk. "At any rate I thought that this was the perfect opportunity for you start over."

"You're the best Bit." Spike said throwing an arm around Dawn's shoulders. "I think it's about time I bought some respectable cloths." Spike said picking at his T-shirt.

The two of them walked out of the building and spent their lunch period about town.

Two hours later Jessica entered her poetry class thoroughly anticipating the intellectual break that Spikes classes offered. She needed it after spending a double period in Oz's class. Oz had set up the week to combine with Willows mythological biology class. It was bad enough having the two of them back to back anyway but sitting through a double period with both of them teaching was torture. Jessica sat down at her desk on the front row and looked up at the dry-erase board. At first she thought that the headmaster had come to inspect her class but when the man up front turned around she nearly screamed.

"Mister Spike is that you?" She said looking at the thin man. His hair had been slicked back and a pair of wire-rimmed glasses were sitting precariously on his nose. He wore a gray tailored suit with gold pinstripes that made him look even thinner than he was.

"Please call me William." He said pulling a handkerchief out of his pocket and wiping off his glasses.

"Does this have anything to do with Miss Summers change this morning?" She said getting out her textbook.

"Yes Jessica it has everything to do with this morning." Spike said pulling an ancient book out of his bag. "Here read this and tell me what you think." He said handing her the book.

"Lyrics of Love by William Hurly." She said reading the cover. She opened the book and began to read.

"I opened the day with song

As I walked through a garden green

Nothing I see is wrong

For my life with you is clean

I cannot get the thought of you from my mind

For every thought in my head is yours not mine."

"Wow Mister S, that was pretty good." Jessica said handing him back the book.

"Thank you the girl I was courting at the time thought it was dribble." Spike said placing the book on his desk. "I may not have had the perfect touch for poetry but there were no real models to base myself off of at the time. My contemporaries are now immortalized in book and thought while my book has not been published for nearly a century."

"That sucks Mister Hurly." Jessica said copying down the homework assignment on the bored as the room slowly filled with students.

"That's all right but please don't call me Mister Hurly." Spike said picking up Jessica's copy of the text. He opened to a page and set the text back down.

"We're going over Beowulf?" The girl asked quizzically.

"Yes we are. Tomorrow Miss Summers is going to come by and give you all a quick lesson on the Welsh language." He said returning to his desk to find his copy of the book.

There were hushed tones across the room over his appearance. Slowly they all settled down had pulled out their textbooks.

"Today I would like to cover poetry and its basis in literature. Can anyone tell me where Beowulf was written?" He asked the class.

"It was written by monks in the mountains of Wales." Jessica said.

"Very good, now perhaps someone else can tell me where the book is supposed to take place?" He asked again. A girl on the third row raised her hand. "Yes and your name is?"

"Melanie, Beowulf is set in Denmark right?" She replied.

"Well kind of." Jessica said. "The beginning where Beowulf fights Grendel is set in Denmark because the book says that Hrothgar was the king of the Danes. But the translation of where Beowulf was king is kind of hazy." She said looking up at Spike for confirmation.

"There's more than just the stuff with Grendel?" Melanie said astonished. "Back at my old school my teacher didn't teach us anything other than that."

"Yes well that is what Hollywood has been able to market so therefore it is the only aspect most people read. However without reading the text in its entirety it's impossible to understand the time period and the way of life. You see Beowulf is considered the first piece of recorded history after the fall of the Roman Empire. After the fall of the empire people didn't think it was necessary to record anything on paper so they would tie their history in with legend an tell it across the land from village to village and from grandfather to grandson. These stories were told either in song or in verse hence the birth of poetry, and consequently the birth of literature. Now there is rumor that the works of Homer were written in this same time period. There is no concrete evidence but it would make sense. All Greek history up until its involvement in the Bible and its cross into Egyptian history was oral. Now imagine that a crier is standing on a street corner telling of the history o f the Trojan War and a monk happens to leaning out side his window for some fresh air and over heard the crier speaking. Now it would make sense that he would want to transcribe this story into text right?" Spike said as several girls nodded their heads. "That is what many historians believe. After all in the days of Troy the language spoken was very different than the language spoken in Greece even seven hundred years ago. No one speaks archaic Greek anymore so how could the book have been popular unless transcribed by a man of the church or translated." Spike picked up his book and looked at the pages before him. "All right tomorrow I will have copies of the full text of Beowulf for you they will be bilingual which means that you will be able to read line by line the original Welsh. Have a good day." He stated picking up his copy of the text and walking from the room.

As night fell on the city a group of slayers were preparing of patrol. Spike walked into the room and noticed that the group was no bigger than six. He saw Buffy and approached her.

"Are you sure I'm needed here." He said indicating the group before him looks like your not taking many out anyway.

"Yes I want you here cause if I get killed Dawn would kill you and if any of these girls died she would kill you. That and I don't want Angel here and James insisted that someone with experience accompany us." She said strapping Kevlar gun belts to her thighs.

"Ah, just when we all thought you two were patching things up." Spike kidded slipping on a Kevlar tactical jacket.

Buffy put a hand on his arm and he stopped moving. "Are you ok with all of this?" She asked looking away from him.

"Are you kidding I'm so thrilled you haven't killed me for sleeping with your sister that I could care less what you and watcher boy do." He said with his usual mischievous grin.

"I haven't killed you because it would break Dawn's heart." Buffy said giving him a stare that made the hair on his back stand up. He stammered to come up with something to say but stopped when Buffy burst into laughter.

"Oh go sod off you winch. You're about the only thing I'm frightened of in this world. You, Dawn and God." He said strapping an army issue knife to his right thigh.

"Don't worry I wont kill you." Buffy said holstering her duel hand guns.

Spike strapped a Beretta to his left thigh and looked at the six other Slayers standing in the prep room that separated the armory from the gym. He was dressed like all of the slayers who were equipped with a Beretta a knife and tactical gear. They each wore light yellow tinged Oakley's to eliminate glare and wore Kevlar gloves to prevent fraction burns from there handguns. Spike didn't need the glasses but he didn't need the reading glasses he had worn that afternoon either. From Spikes perspective they all looked like they were part of a military strike force. He checked the magazines in the flack vest to make sure they were all fully loaded. He pulled one of the bullets out and cringed. There was one thing he hated about being a day walker and that was that the sun still hurt like hell. He could walk around in the light if he wanted to but he had to make sure he hadn't just eaten or else he would hurl. James had explained that solar energy eats away at sin and because vampires were living embodiments of sin that the sun would literally consume them. You had to be forgiven by god to walk in the light and even then you had to be sure you had forgiven yourself for your sins or you could end up with third degree burns. Spike grabbed a walkie-talkie off the wall and motioned for the group to follow him. They took the back entrance out of the building so they could escape detection. Once they were out side pike corralled them all in a pack.

"Ok you are all going to need to wear badges when you go out on patrol. Now some of you will be given individual badges and id numbers to identify you to the local police. For know you are all just junior slayers so you will have no form of id. The only way the police can identify you is if you stay with Buffy and I. Right now we are going to split up into groups of four Buffy will take three slayers and I will take three. The idea of this exercise is to learn to work not only as a team but to better familiarize yourself with your role as a slayer." Spike took a silver colored badge from his pocket and affixed it to the left breast of his jacket. "Now I'll take Jessica, Monica and you." He said pointing to a red head.

"Names Jenny." The girl said.

"Ok so the three of you on me the rest of you go with Buffy." Spike said falling out down the ally. He crossed a side street and moved through another ally headed north while Buffy and her team headed south. After an hour they hadn't seen much action at all and Spike was starting to get testy.

"All right pansies lets make one last round before heading back." Spike said holstering his weapon.

They walked down a deserted alleyway that lead to an after hours club. Halfway down the alley a shadow had cast over them. They all stopped and looked about to find the perp responsible. The girls all drew their guns and backed up till they bumped into each other. Spike drew his own weapon and sniffed at the air.

"It's a vampire, at lest a hundred years old." He said scanning the roof tops.

"How can you tell?" Monica asked looking at him wearily.

"Half-breeds can't control dark magic until about then. It takes a lot of blood for a half breed to become demonic enough to harness that kind of power." Spike said holding his weapon with both hands.

"You're over a hundred aren't you? Why don't you just use dark magic to find him?" Jenny said trying to focus her eyes on the rooftop that Spike was focusing on.

"For one thing I didn't like to feed. I only feed when I had to." He said trying to get a bead on the vamp.

"But I thought they used to call you Bloody William." Jessica said looking at her teacher.

"Yes they did, I had the highest body count of any vampire. I was only second to Angelus and Vlad Dracul himself." Spike said he shivered at the thought of all those bodies. "But that doesn't mean that I drank all of them. I enjoyed killing people much more than I did feeding the thirst." He said finally holstering his weapon. "And besides if I tried to use the dark power I would be corrupted totally and be damned to hell again." Spike stated relaxing his posture. "This guys is just playing with us he knows he can't kill me. I can taste his fear; he wants to hurt all three of you he's just afraid of what I would do to him." Spike laughed maniacally. He laughed so hard he had to clutch his stomach. As he laughed the lighting in the alley returned to normal.

"What happened?" Jenny asked looking up at the roof tops.

"He ran away." Jessica said looking over at Spike. He was still rubbing his stomach even though he had stopped laughing. "You frightened him."

"I'm a frightening man luv." Spike said unclipping his walkie-talkie. "This is Spike how goes the hunt?" Spike said into the radio.

"We didn't see a thing. How about you guys?" Came Buffy's voice.

"We scared some of the local vamps but no kills." He said looking down the alley.

"Sorry to hear, I don't like this. There is no reason that the streets should be clean in a city this size." Buffy said her worry coming through in her voice.

"Well this is a hellmouth who knows what kind of evil is lurking around." He said motioning his slayers to move down the alley. "Meet back in ten minutes. Over." He said clicking off the radio. "Radio silence from here on got it girls." They all nodded their heads.

Spike lead them down the alley until they reached a bend that lead to the streets. A shadowy figure was peaking out its head to see down the street. Spike raised his hand and motioned for them to stop. He walked up to the figure slowly and grabbed it around the neck and mouth. Spike jerked back and slammed the man into a wall. The man was wearing a long tattered cloak and had small scar on his face. Spike pulled out his gun and pressed the end of the barrel against the mans head.

"Hey hold on man don't shoot." He held up his hands. "I'm a cop man you don't want that kind of heat on you."

"I know you're a cop." Spike said placing his gun back in its holster. "You didn't work on that cover very well. I could smell your cologne halfway down the block."

"Shit you scared me to death you know that." The man said taking off the cloak. He stood about five foot ten and had dark skin. "So you supposed be some sort of homeland security agents or something."

"Something like that." Spike said pulling a leather wallet out of his back pocket. When he flipped open the ID wallet the officer gasped.

"We were just briefed about you guys this morning. You're some sort of British Special-Ops unit right." He said looking closer at the badge.

"You could say that I suppose." Spike said pocketing the wallet. "We're out on a practice run tonight letting the girls get a feel for the city."

"Good idea." The officer said. "My name is Detective Reins. You wouldn't mind telling me why you guys are here would you?"

"You really don't want to know." Spike said patting the detective on the shoulder. "Names William, if you really want to learn about us come by sometime and speak with the director I'm sure he and the deputy director would love to give you a tour of our instillation." Spike pulled out one of his business cards and handed it to the man.

Spike turned around and lead his girls down the alley. Detective Reins looked and the card and furrowed his brow. The card read-

Prof. William Hurly

English Department.

Watchers Council

1100 Cherry Avenue

Cleveland

Reins leaned against the side of the building and laughed this had certainly been one hell of a day.


	13. Public Image

AN: This chapter was written a long time ago. I recently was given all of my roommate's stories as well as her fanfiction account. Honestly I can't keep up with updating her stuff as well as keeping my account so all of her stuff is going to get posted to my account as soon as I can get it all straightened out. My pen name is duffjessica hope you're still interested in reading this.

Public Image

Angel woke with a sharp pain in his chest. A cross was gleaming red at the base of his neck. He sat up and rubbed his chest. He had been playing it safe for years now. What could have sparked the change now? He sprang up out of bed and ran to the next floor where the gym was located. Maybe working out would sedate the fire. It was early in the morning and he was sure that no one would be awake. He found a punching bag in a quiet corner and began beating it senseless. Every time his fist made contact with the bag the fire only grew. He had a deep desire to hurt something real, preferably a woman or a child. He wanted to cause pain immense psychological pain. In a surge of anger he grabbed the punching bag and ripped it from its supports in the ceiling.

"I'm not sure the inanimate object deserved that." Came a familiar voice.

"Go away James, I cant be held accountable to what I might do right now." Angel said turning to face his friend.

"Oh yes you will be. Have we not already established that you have always been in control. That it was you that did all those terrible things. True there is a beast inside of you but that does not mean that you loose control of who you are." Said the watcher as he strolled up to him leisurely. "Now if you must beat something up to quell the pain then by all means try me." He said extending his arms out.

"I tried to warn you James." Angel said rushing at the man bearing down hard his fist cocked back ready to strike.

James side stepped the large vampire placing a hard yet precise judo chop to the back of his neck. The vampire fell face first into the matted floor. "Now have we had enough or are you going to listen to me now?"

Angel grunted and slumped in defeat. "All right you win."

"Very good I'm glad we could come to an understanding. Now as I was saying you need to learn to better control these demons of yours. I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that you would never let yourself hurt any of the girls here." James said squatting down next to him. "I think your afraid of starting a relationship with misses Summers. So your letting your demons surface out of guilt."

"So what do you think I should do." Angel asked looking up at his friend from his position on the floor.

"The answer is simple you should go to Buffy's room right now and confess everything." James said getting up from the floor.

"It's not that simple." Angel said standing up as well.

"The relationship the two of you share is only difficult because you make it so." He said walking from the room.

Angel stood alone in the gym scratching his head could his problems really be that simple. Could communication have made that much of a difference. Turning on his heal he made a mad dash for the elevator. He rode the car to the ground floor. He needed flowers he had no idea were he was going to get flowers at two in the morning but he knew he needed to give her flowers. He wasn't sure if he had ever given her flowers if he had it had been at least six years. He ran down the streets of Cleveland searching for a twenty-four hour supermarket. After running twelve blocks he found a store that was still open. He ran in searching the entire store before finding the floral department. He bought the biggest bouquet of bright coloured flowers they had and sprinted back to the council building. He made it back to the faculty floor before anyone had woken up he rushed to the door to Buffy's apartment and paused before knocking. He needed to calm down and catch his breath.

Angel knocked firmly on the door and shook the water out of the flowers. He could hear sound coming from inside the voice didn't sound like Buffy's but he had nearly forgotten about Illyria. When the door opened he wasn't surprised to see the blue veined woman.

"Hey." She said waving. She turned her head to face the inside of the apartment. "Hey mom, look who's here."

Buffy came around a corner her hair was a mess and from the state of her pyjamas she had just gotten out of bed. "Angel what are you doing here?"

"Well I wanted to give you these." He said holding up the bouquet. "That and I wanted to talk to you."

Illyria looked back and forth between the two and screwed up her face in confusion. "I'm going to go raid the kitchen downstairs mom." She said edging past Angel.

Buffy walked over to the door and took the flowers. "There pretty, I'm surprised you remembered that I like daisies."

"I didn't really. It had been so long that I wasn't sure what you would like so I picked the one that was the most cheerful." He said giving her a half smile.

"It's the thought that counts right?" She said walking into her kitchen.

"I guess, I wanted to talk to you and for some reason I had this nagging feeling that you needed flowers." He said joining her in the kitchen.

"Thanks it was sweet of you." She said setting the flowers in the sink. "So what did you want to talk about."

Angel sat down at the table and crossed his hands. "I haven't ever been the best person at starting a conversation, especially with you."

"Amen to that." Buffy said sitting down opposite him.

"Well I want to change that. I've been in love with you for a long time." He said focusing on a spot on the table. "I know I don't always show it."

"That's an understatement." She said leaning back in her chair.

"To be honest I have had trouble accepting the fact that we could even have a relationship. For some reason I have always felt like I didn't deserve it. That's why I hurt all of those people seven years ago." He said wiping his brow.

"You didn't just hurt them you killed an innocent woman." She said crossing her arms.

"I know and for that I can never fully atone. That's why I was so distant when I came back. I didn't think I was worthy of even speaking to human beings much less you." He stated getting up and pouring himself a cup of coffee. "You helped bring me back to life and in return I up and left."

"Yeah I hated you for a long time for that." She said tucking an errant strand of hair behind her ear.

"You had every reason to hate me. I ran because you made me whole again I was afraid of hurting you. I thought that if I started over I could put Angelus behind me." He sat back down and took a sip out of his mug. "I knew what I did hurt you and every day that abandonment tore at my heart until I let myself get conned into believing that I had lost my soul. I went mad and nothing would stop me from causing pain. When I finally did come out of it the people who I thought were my friends turned their backs on me just like they had in Sunnydale. Over the course of a few years I came to realize who and what Angelus is." Angel got up and walked over to the door. "I'll understand if you don't want to speak to me ever again. I just needed to tell you the truth. I'll always be there for you." Angel walked out of her kitchen and closed the door on his way to his office.

An hour later Angel sat behind his desk reviewing a memorandum from the Cleveland police. Picking up his phone Angel dialled the number he had been provided.

"Hello?" Came a burly voice.

"Hello, is this the captain in charge of police central?" Angel asked reclining in his chair.

"Yes this is captain Polanski." He said through the earpiece.

"That's wonderful, this is Liam Angelus over at the Watchers Council." Angel said trying to remember how to speak with an Irish lilt.

"Ah yes, I believe we had a runner send over some information to your office yesterday." The captain replied.

"Yes I received your packet." Angel smiled he was having fun speaking like an Irishman again. "How would you feel about sending an inspector to act as an observer."

"That sounds wonderful. I can send a detective over later today." The captain volunteered.

"Yes well one of my agents had a run in with a Detective Malarkey." Angel asked.

"I understand you'd rather use someone who is already aware of your organization. That's really not a problem when do you want him?" The captain asked.

"We usually have afternoon tea at about two o'clock." Angel smiled broadly as he hung up the phone. Shortly after there was a knock at the door.

"Come in." He said.

It was Rachel Dawson pushing a tea trolley. "Hello sir. Would you like a cup of tea?" She asked.

"That would be lovely." He replied taking the proffered cup.

"Is everything all right sir you sound off?" She asked pulling out a tray of English biscuit.

"Sorry about that I was on the phone with the chief of police. Since we are governed by the crown they expect me to be speak like I'm straight from Britain." He said selecting a handful of jammy dodgers from her tray.

"I see, does that mean I have to start speaking like I'm British whenever we have guests over?" She asked with a coy smile.

"Not unless you want to." He said smirking.

"Well have a nice day sir." She said pulling her trolley down the hall.

Angel finished his tea and went out to mingle with his slayers.

Two o'clock came and Detective John Malarkey found himself standing outside a tall professional building in downtown Cleveland. The detective shook his head wondering how he got himself in these kinds of situations. Stepping through the front doors John was shocked at how normal the place looked. The front lobby had marble floors that matched to large marble receptionists desk in the middle of the room. A young girl dressed very business professional sat behind the desk with a perky smile plastered on her face.

As the detective made his way to the counter another woman came out of the elevator. She was slightly older than the girl at the desk but not by much. She had shoulder length brown hair and held herself as if she ran the place.

"Hello you must be the detective I was told about." The brunette said offering him her hand. "My name is Rachael Dawson I'm the Executive Manager here at the Watcher's Council."

"It's nice to meet you Ms Dawson." John said taking her hand. "I'm Detective John Malarkey."

"I need to have you sign some things in my office and then the Assistant Director expects you for tea." She said leading him to the elevator.

Once they entered her office John was taken aback at how lavish it felt. The walls were palled in mahogany and lined with mahogany bookshelves. The young woman's desk was also mahogany and the outside wall was a full bank of windows looking out over the city.

"Impressive isn't it?" She said noticing the look of awe on the detective's face.

"That it is, you must have worked very hard to get a position like this at your age." He replied.

"I like to think that I was destined for this job." She said pulling a folder out of a set of file cabinets. "I need you to sign these non-discloser forms and fill out this payroll form and then we can go see Mr Angelus."

John took the forms and looked them over with a weary eye. "In this day and age I can understand the extra security but why the payroll form?" He asked as he signed the non-discloser agreement.

"There are certain hazards that come with this company and the Director likes to know that everyone involved with the Council is adequately compensated." She replied taking both forms from the detective once he finished.

"I understand." He said nodding his head. "What kind of compensation are we talking about?"

"That depends on how involved you chose to be." Rachael said showing him out of her office. "After you and Mr Angelus talk we'll finalize everything."

At the end of the hallway stood a large door with a gold plaque that read Assistant Director. Rachael opened the door and ushered the bewildered man inside.

The office was larger than Ms Dawson's but had many of the same mahogany themes. "You people seem to really love wood." He said offering his hand to the large Irishman behind the desk.

"You have no idea." Angel said taking his hand. John noticed the Chladagh on his right hand and grinned.

"You really are from the old country." He said gesturing to the Chladagh and holding up his left hand showing off a similar ring.

"I figured you were Irish though your family must not have been very well liked." Angel said thinking about the man's name. "Having bullshit for a last name must be pretty annoying."

"Not many people around here seem to notice." He said with a shrug. "since you already know my name what's yours"

"David Liam Angelus." Angel said. "Though most people just call me Angel."

John looked at the man in front of him with a raised eyebrow for several seconds. "You go around using the same name as a gay character from Broadway?"

"Some of my more cultured friends have pointed that out to me before." Angel laughed. "To be honest though I started being called Angel a long time before Jonathon Larson ever named his character that." Angel took the detective by the arm and led him from his office. "I asked for our tea to be served in the conference room."

The conference room felt to Detective Malarkey like a stark contrast to the other rooms he had been in. The laminated table stood out against the white walls and black executive chairs. A silver tea tray sat on the table next to a set of tactical gear.

"What's all of this for?" John wondered as Angel poured them both cups of tea.

"This is standard equipment worn by all of our agents." Angel responded. "A natural part of observing our operation is accompanying us in the field. So I had Ms Dawson requisition you a locker and a full set of gear."

"That's what she meant by hazard pay." He said looking over the flack jacket lying on the table.

"What kind of weapon do they issue you at the police station?" Angel asked once he had finished his tea.

"Smith and Wesson six shooter." The detective said still looking over the weave of the vest.

Angel shook his head in disappointment. "That just won't do at all." Walking over to the black duffle bag containing the other gear he pulled out a black ceramic Glock. "This is specially made to shoot eight millimetre bullets marked with the Ministry of Intelligence emblem. You cannot be charged for the death or injury of anyone shot with this weapon." Angel handed the pistol to John and pulled a set of clips form the bag. "The bullets we use are hollow point made from silver-nitrate laced titanium." Angel handed him two clips and a Kevlar holster. "Our Agents all carry Beretta's but I thought the Glock would look better for a cop to carry."

"Good I idea, people might get suspicious if I started carrying Military ordnance." John agreed. "This Vest is pretty thin what's it made of?" He asked holding up the flack jacket

"The micro-fibre of the vest hides a thin layer of dragon scale." Angel said making Johns eyes bulge.

"This stuff must cost a fortune." The detective said astonished that he was being issued that kind of equipment so easily.

"I like to know that my people are safe." The vampire said handing John the duffle bag. "Why don't I take you back to Rachael's office and you can negotiate your pay."

After a few minutes John found himself in Ms Dawson's office again. Apparently his status as an observer was just a cover so that the city government would feel better about having the council working in the area. In reality though he was expected to report directly to the Director of the council and reveal nothing whatsoever about what really went on behind the council's doors. He was even being given a salary higher than what he received at the department to help coerce him from leaking their secrets. Not that he had been told what these secrets were. He decided not to complain though as the raise in pay would help he and his wife with their newborn girl.

"You seem to be taking all of this in stride." Rachel said once all of the confidentiality forms had been squared away.

The detective shrugged his shoulders. "After what I saw of your people in the field I would rather be on the inside of whatever you're doing then hanging in the dark." He smiled weighing the ordinance bag in his hand. "Plus there has to be more to this than you're letting on. From what I've seen so far you've got a big operation going here and I plan on keeping an eye out for this burgh."

The detective left and Rachel could hold back a smile. The police officer was in for a shock once he saw what the watchers council was really fighting.


End file.
